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DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


BY 

LEVI GILBERT 



NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS 
CINCINNATI: JENNINGS & GRAHAM 







Copyright, 1912, by 
EATON & MAINS 





£CI,A309508 

no.i 


CONTENTS 

CHAP. 

Preface. 

I. The Miracle of Power in Christ. 

II. The Opposing Power of Sin. 

III. Transforming Power Experienced.. . 

IV. The Mystery of the Power. 

V. The Bible and Spiritual Power. 

VI. Power in the Inner Life. 

VII. Power for the Life of Service. 

VIII. Spirituality the Urgent Need. 

IX. Revival Power in the Church. 

X. The Preacher and the Revival. 

XI. The Laymen and the Revival. 

XII. Ideals and Methods in Evangelism. .. 

XIII. The Personal Element in Evangelism 


PAGE 

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9 

. 36 
67 
86 
111 
138 

. 171 
206 
243 
267 
296 
333 
369 


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PREFACE 


This book has been written nnder the conviction 
that the mystical element in Christianity has been of 
late years too greatly neglected, with quite serious 
results; that there must be a return to the clear 
recognition that the religion of Christ depends for 
its effectiveness and triumph upon a divine, super¬ 
natural power, defying all naturalistic explanations. 
Christianity is the religion of power. Its true 
nature can be understood only as it is interpreted in 
terms of power. Its earliest apostles were to be 
endued with “power from on high.” That pente- 
costal endowment is the indispensable requisite of 
the Church in every age. That power, proceeding 
from God through Christ and creating its own spe¬ 
cific product, has manifested itself through the 
centuries in the re-creation and radical transforma¬ 
tion of human lives. It is mysterious, inexplicable, 
but undeniably real, self-attesting—an emanation 
from the Almighty. 

The religion of Jesus is ethical, but when it is 
portrayed purely as a system of ethics it loses its 
main value, essence and forcefulness. It is pro¬ 
foundly philosophic, but is vastly more than a phi¬ 
losophy. It contains a lofty theology, but its vitaliz¬ 
ing efficiency lies not in a compilation of dogmas. 
It is more than any theories, abstractions, or intel- 
lectualisms; it is dynamic—an effluence from the 
Omnipotent. 

Without organization, doubtless, church activities 
5 


6 


PREFACE 


could not be carried on. To provide a means for 
human effort there must he adequate machinery 
and established methods. But there is always a 
danger that the machine or the routine shall itself 
unconsciously come to be considered a substitute 
for the true energizing force and spiritualizing 
agent. Failure will characterize every attempt to 
evangelize the world when reliance is placed pri¬ 
marily on clever planning and ingenious devices. 

The writer of these pages would not intimate that 
the Church of to-day is devoid of spirituality. That 
supreme grace exists in large proportions and is 
evidently operative. But the perplexing and enor¬ 
mous problems which face Christianity in the press¬ 
ing responsibilities of evangelistic and missionary 
work in America and Europe, and on the Oriental 
side of the globe, make imperative the positive acces¬ 
sion of a double portion—yea, a quadruple portion 
—of the life and potency of the Spirit if conquest is 
to be rationally expected. A fuller and deeper spir¬ 
ituality in the Church is the absolute and urgent 
necessity in this generation. 

It is the earnest hope of the author that this 
volume may come with its message to very many 
laymen who are awakening to the claims of God 
upon them in bringing the gospel in forms of life to 
their fellow laymen everywhere; to consecrated 
pastors striving to arouse their memberships and 
communities to the demands of the soul in an age 
when material considerations are so insistent; to 
faithful evangelists who, by their preaching of the 
Word, would quicken consciences and lead men to 
repentance, conversion, and the loftiest attainments 
of grace; and to all self-sacrificing missionaries pro- 


PREFACE 


7 


claiming at home and in far distant parts of the 
earth to needy millions the infinitely precious truths 
of the Fatherhood of God, the redemption through 
Christ, the inspiration and sanctification of the Holy 
Spirit. 


Levi Gilbert. 


















CHAPTER I 

The Miracle of Power in Christ 

Riding one day on the traction cars, and coming 
to a crossing where several lines met, all at once onr 
car and all the others came to a standstill. “Lost 
the power/ ’ said the conductor to an inquiring 
passenger. After a few minutes’ waiting, on look¬ 
ing down the avenue he saw one car start, and ex- 
exclaimed, 4 4 He’s got the power I ’’ And as he spoke 
our car moved on. 

The parallel between his condition and the 
Church’s is real and striking. Just as his car was 
inert and helpless without the electricity from the 
power house, so the Church is lifeless and inoper¬ 
ative without the all-necessary spirituality from 
God. “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy 
Ghost is come upon you. ’ ’ This is the only condition 
in which men have power with other men and pre¬ 
vail. It is indispensable. 

The Bible is full of references to this need of 
divine power. God ‘ ‘ gives power to the faint. ’ ’ Paul 
knew “the effectual working of his power.” Jesus 
returned from the wilderness “in the power of the 
Spirit.” Pentecost is a reality—is a perpetual 
necessity and a perpetual privilege, and not an 
isolated event in the past—and is not to be explained 
on any naturalistic principles. The Church must 
be something more than an ecclesiastical organiza¬ 
tion, or a club under religiously social auspices. It 
must be charged with supernatural power from 
9 


10 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


celestial dynamos—must be the earthly conductor of 
God’s life and energy for men. Otherwise all its 
machinery stops and is useless. Christians must be 
filled, like Peter and Paul, with the Holy Ghost and 
with power. “Getting the power” is not some sort 
of hysteria or epileptic seizure, not a piece of fanat¬ 
icism or insanity, but the prime necessity of any real 
being and activity in the Christian, and of any 
evangelizing potency and effectiveness in the world. 
All human culture and all churchly methods must be 
vitalized from on high. 

Conduct may well be, as Matthew Arnold insisted, 
three fourths of religion, and to-day we are seeing 
clearly the indefensible folly of sneering at what 
thoughtless people style 44 mere morality . 9 9 Morality 
—righteousness—is the element in religion without 
which it is a superstition or a fanaticism. It is the 
grandest product of a right faith, and the 4 4 fruit of 
the Spirit”— 44 love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kind¬ 
ness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control” 
—shows that, in Christianity, morality is inseparable 
from religion. In ancient paganism, as in the 
systems of present-day heathenism, this connection 
between worship and creed and life and character 
was fatally sundered. 

Nevertheless, there was some sort of meaning in 
the old reference to 44 mere morality.” Christianity 
must be ever perceived to be infinitely more than a 
system of ethics. It cannot be reduced to the propor¬ 
tions of a convenient compendium of moralisms and 
maxims for living, such as is contained in the books 
of Confucius, the 4 4 Meditations 9 ’ of Marcus Aurelius, 
or a 4 4 Poor Richard’s Almanac . 9 9 Its distinguishing 
mark is the presence in it of a supernatural Spirit 


THE MIRACLE OP POWER IN CHRIST 


11 


which works with effectual power. This power it is 
which differentiates Christianity from other reli¬ 
gions. For many centuries before Christ men had 
known that in the moral realm they were not measur¬ 
ing up to their possibilities. Christ has made the 
obligations of the moral law vastly more luminous 
and binding for us. But before his Advent men 
recognized the claims of conscience, felt the demands 
of the higher law, gave expression to their ideals and 
aspirations. Christ, indeed, spake as never man 
spake on the problems of the soul; but there had been 
great teachers and masters—Moses, Socrates, Plato, 
Buddha, Confucius, the Talmudists—in the world 
before him. Christianity cannot assert its preemi¬ 
nence and uniqueness in the world, simply and only 
as a revelation of the laws and rules of morality. 

But, with all their perception of what they ought 
to do, it was the uniform confession of these ancients 
that they did not attain to their goal, that they lacked 
the power to carry out their noblest purposes. Their 
highest endeavors ended in defeat. The Roman 
cried, “I approve the better and yet the worse pur¬ 
sue. ’ ’ And Saint Paul voices the pathetic confession 
of the Hebrews: “The good which I would I do 
not: but the evil which I would not, that I practice. ’ ’ 
This confession is one that is repeated every day 
among men of our own time. Lecturers in an ethical 
culture society may discourse glowingly on the pos¬ 
sibilities of man’s spiritual attainments. The great 
fraternal orders, in their rituals, may elaborate lofty 
conceptions of moral excellence; but still there is 
evermore the old lament over non-attainment—“To 
will is present with me, but to do that which is good 
is not.” There is nothing in life at once more pa- 


12 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


thetic and affecting than to behold the heroic endeav¬ 
ors many men are making, without Christ, to live up 
to the highest demands of their clearest moments of 
insight. Their vision of truth and right is unob¬ 
scured. They strive after it. But, feeble and frail 
in themselves, and assailed by passions and tempta¬ 
tions, they are overthrown again and again, and 
have no continuous or permanent victory. 

It is right at this point that the particular and 
distinguishing characteristic of the religion of Christ 
is to be found. He promised his disciples that they 
should be endued with power from on high when the 
Holy Ghost should come upon them. For this power 
they were to tarry in Jerusalem. He definitely 
announced that all power was given unto him. It 
was he who was to speak power into helpless souls 
—to energize them so that their natural weakness 
and inefficiency should be overcome, and they should 
be able, not only to dream and resolve and plan in 
the field of the Spirit, but also actually to achieve. 
And when Saint Paul—looking back over the melan¬ 
choly record of his years when not what he would do 
did he practice, but the very thing that he hated, that 
he did, with the mind serving the law of God, but 
with the flesh the law of sin—cried out, “ Wretched 
man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body 
of this death?” he was able, aided by his own mar¬ 
velous and transforming experience, to reply to him¬ 
self immediately, “I thank God through Jesus 
Christ our Lord.” 

The gladness of that cry has thrilled our sinning 
and baffled humanity through the centuries since, 
and thrills it yet. In America, where men honestly 
say that they want to be good, but admit with contri- 


THE MIRACLE OP POWER IN CHRIST 


13 


tion that, unaided, they can’t; and, in other lands, 
where the systems of faith are inert and uninspira- 
tional and noneffective for good amid multiplied 
depravities, there is immeasurable joy in the promise 
of a Spirit of Truth, who, without failure, shall guide 
into all truth and make the impossible possible. 
“Without me, ye can do nothing,” says Christ; “I 
can do all things in him that strengtheneth me,” 
exclaimed Paul. And since then the Church has 
gone on proclaiming in joyous hymns its “Year of 
Jubilee” and singing 

“Ye slaves of sin and hell. 

Your liberty receive.” 

We would not imply that all Christians have 
achieved absolute mastery over all temptations, that 
they are perfect and never overthrown. But they 
“press toward the mark,” and they have that within 
them and on their side which shall ultimately make 
them “more than conquerors”—which shall over¬ 
come the evil in them with good. Sin has no more 
dominion over them—does not reign and rule in 
them. The “strong man” has been hound by a 
stronger than he. The “backbone of the rebellion” 
was broken at Vicksburg and at Gettysburg. There 
was much more fighting, and defeat alternated with 
victory for the national cause; but Appomattox was 
never an uncertainty, and it came in due time. So 
it is in the campaigns of the spiritual life. The 
prayer of all men everywhere must in time come to 
be that of the Christian worshiper to-day: 

“Holy Spirit, Power Divine! 

Fill and nerve this will of mine; 

By thee may I strongly live. 

Bravely bear and nobly strive.” 


14 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


This dynamic, transmuting energy puts the reli¬ 
gion of Christ in a class by itself. Other religions 
may have partial glimpses of the truth, hut Chris¬ 
tianity has more than truth—it has power. And its 
Founder, from whom emanates this mighty agency, 
is thereby differentiated from all other founders of 
other faiths or religious systems. He is not only “a 
teacher come from God,” but a miracle-worker in the 
realm of the spiritual as well as in that of the phys¬ 
ical. There is a vast difference between teaching 
truth and exemplifying it in life, and then making 
that life potent for regenerating dead souls. 

A friend once loaned us a handbook on theosophy. 
We have known something of the system and also 
something of the career of its modern expounder, 
Madame Blavatsky. To speak of her actions as 
“eccentricities” is a species of amiable charity, but 
we are not concerned particularly about that. This 
handbook says: 4 6 There are many persons who are 
apt to measure the value of any system of philosophy 
by the personal habits of its exponents, and, conse¬ 
quently, the theosophist is asked to reconcile certain 
personal eccentricities observable in Madame Bla¬ 
vatsky with the ideals of human progress and per¬ 
fection held out by theosophy.” 

The writer then goes on to say that he does not 
attempt to reconcile them, and that it is a matter of 
comparative indifference. Whether genius is con¬ 
sistent or inconsistent with itself in the ideals it con¬ 
ceives is quite unimportant—truth is truth through 
whatever channel it may come. Tennyson may 
smoke a clay pipe and Swedenborg take snuff, but 
“we must be content as servants of all that is good, 
beautiful, and true in life to be uplifted by the fact, 


THE MIRACLE OF POWER IN CHRIST 


15 


to be guided by the philosopher, and to tolerate the 
man in all his mortal weakness; we can acknowledge 
the aesthetic beauty of the one and the intellectual 
strength of the other without committing ourselves 
to an assent of their personal failures, habits, or 
peculiarities.’ ’ 

There is a certain measure of truth in such a state¬ 
ment. Doubtless many have been helped by the 
pulpit proclamations of preachers who were after¬ 
ward found to be of unsound life, and who perhaps 
had been living falsely and hypocritically. Most 
Christians would acknowledge that they themselves 
are not practically living up to the high demands of 
the gospel they profess, and that their failure is not 
in minor matters relating to pipes and to snuff¬ 
boxes, but in more serious departures from moral 
obligations. But the Christian, though aware of 
his own defects, has supreme satisfaction in point¬ 
ing to the Founder of his faith—the Perfect One, 
who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth 
—who not only showed the way, taught the truth, 
expounded the life, but could say to a critical and 
hostile world, “I am the way, the truth, and the 
life’’; to obey his call, “Follow me,” is to be led into 
all ideal excellence. Theosophy may say “the truth 
has claims of its own apart from the idiosyncrasies 
of its exponents,” but this does not apply to Christ 
who incarnated and practically showed forth all he 
taught, leaving us an example that we should follow 
his steps. And herein Christianity will always show 
its immeasurable superiority to every other faith, 
and to theosophy or any modern substitute for the 
religion of Jesus. Where else in the world or in 
history has there been another than Jesus who could 


16 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


calmly ask, “Which of you convicteth me of sin?” 
What system of philosophy, either ancient or mod¬ 
ern, has ever practically demonstrated its ability to 
break the power of inbred sin and set the prisoner 
free? If philosophy could have saved the world, 
salvation would have come from the Greeks. But 
of what philosopher could it ever have been said that 
he “taketh away the sin of the world”? 

Nothing is more remarkable, in reading the records 
of rescue missions, than to note the marvelous 
results accomplished in the lives of ignorant and 
imbruted men who simply called upon Jesus to save 
them. Frequently Mr. Hadley, in his Water Street 
Mission, told his fellow workers to keep away from 
some poor sinner who was agonizingly appealing to 
Christ. “Let him alone,” he would say; “Jesus 
has got his grip on him.’ ’ And, sure enough, by and 
by there would come a shout, and the “great trans¬ 
action” would be “done,” the miracle of the new 
birth worked. 

Now, most preachers would be inclined to help the 
seeker through by considerable information as to 
the nature of faith, as to the character of the Sav¬ 
iour, as to how he saves, as to the evidences of salva¬ 
tion ; and perhaps they would volunteer the informa¬ 
tion to the seeker that he was saved long before he 
had any assurance of it himself. Better more fre¬ 
quently follow Mr. Hadley’s plan and “let him 
alone”—let “Jesus deal with him.” 

This may seem to some like superstition. They 
will think that the situation demands more philos¬ 
ophy and more theology. But why? If Jesus is a 
living Christ, and able to exert divine power in rad¬ 
ically transforming human souls, why should he not 


THE MIRACLE OF POWER IN CHRIST 


17 


do it when called upon earnestly—as when blind 
Bartimseus called on him—to “have mercy”? Is it 
necessary to possess a theologian’s comprehension 
of him and his work—or even that of an average 
Christian? 

We do not decry an intelligent faith, and do not 
exalt a “blind faith.” But when a man brings the 
best faith he has—as did the uninformed thief on 
the cross—however unintelligent and almost stupid 
and superstitious it may seem; when he comes, in 
his dull way, and with his vision bleared by sin, 
believing, somehow, that Jesus “can do this,” there 
is every evidence that Christ graciously takes him as 
he is, ignorance, sin and all, and blesses and saves 
him. But some may ask, “If about all the poor 
wretch knows is the name of Christ, why not as well 
call upon Jupiter to save?” And the sufficient 
answer is, Because Jupiter does not exist, has not 
saved, and cannot save. Christ does exist; he lives, 
and has saved, and does save. This is enough. “All 
hail the power of Jesus’ name!” 

“In the name of God let us all cease trying to find 
it,” remarked Dr. Campbell Morgan once when the 
discussion turned on the origin of the great religious 
movement in Wales a few years ago. “At least let 
us cease trying to trace it to any one man or con¬ 
vention. You cannot trace it, and I will not trace it 
to-night. Whence has it come? All over Wales—I 
am giving you roughly the result of the questioning 
of fifty or more persons at random in the week—a 
praying remnant have been agonizing before God 
about the state of the beloved land, and it is through 
that that the answer of fire has come. You tell me 
that the revival originates with Roberts. I tell you 


18 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


that Roberts is a product of the revival. You tell 
me that it began in an Endeavor meeting where a 
dear girl bore testimony. I tell yon that was part of 
the result of a revival breaking out everywhere. If 
you and I could stand above Wales, looking at it, 
you would see fire breaking out here and there and 
yonder and somewhere else, without any collusion 
or prearrangement. It is a divine visitation in 
which God—let me say this reverently—in which 
God is saying to us, ‘ See what I can do without the 
things you are depending on; see what I can do in 
answer to a praying people; see what I can do 
through the simplest, who are ready to fall in line, 
and depend wholly and absolutely upon me. ’ ’’ The 
inexplicable, miraculous power that evidently resides 
in Jesus has been the enigma of two thousand years, 
and is yet as mysterious and as far from solution 
as ever. 

Canon Farrar once wrote: “If the son of a Ben¬ 
galee peasant, hanged by order of the lieutenant- 
governor of the Northwest Province because of the 
mischief he was making among the Moslems of 
Lahore, were to establish his faith on the ruins of 
Westminster Abbey and install the successor of his 
leading disciple on the throne of the British empire, 
we should be compelled to the inference that there 
is an Infinite behind; nothing but a God could control 
such a machine.” And he then adds in regard to 
Jesus: “It needed a fulcrum in eternity to make such 
a change in the things of time with so weak a lever 
as the life of this Galilsean.” 

Surely there is Infinity in the power of the cross. 
The ancient Greek and Roman must have regarded 
with unfeigned wonder what was accomplished in 


THE MIRACLE OP POWER IN CHRIST 


19 


the name of “the holy child Jesus.” Christianity 
came presenting no new philosophy, no fresh meta¬ 
physical system, for the cure of the world’s ills. 
Its method was not preeminently intellectual, but 
moral and spiritual. It came not with a system, but 
with a Person. It originated not in Greece, the land 
of culture, but in Palestine, the most narrow, iso¬ 
lated, peculiar, and prejudiced of the Roman posses¬ 
sions, and from the most ignominious town of its 
most despised province. It came preaching faith in 
One who, in the estimation of the historians and 
rulers of his own race, was seditious, blaspheming, 
arrayed against the local authorities; One who, it 
might seem to Pilate, stirred up the poor to revolu¬ 
tionize the laws; who himself, a mere mechanic and 
plebeian, a poor, wandering vagabond, condemned 
by his own nation to the most shameful of all imagin¬ 
able deaths, perished as a malefactor on the 
cross, crucified as one part fool and three parts 
adventurer. 

And its first disciples, converts, and propagators 
were fishermen, women, and outcasts of the lowest 
social scale. It preached to those who joyed in the 
life of revels, games, and banquets what to them 
seemed a ridiculous and unreasonable doctrine— 
that of self-denial, humility, and unselfishness. It 
insisted that salvation must be by Another, and that 
the individual could not save himself; that the salva¬ 
tion must come, not as the result of learning and 
processes of reasoning (wherein man might have 
pride), but only in trust and faith. It held up the 
cross of Christ as the symbol of all salvation, and 
pointed to him as the world’s Redeemer. 

He must be for the Jew the “sign” of power he 


20 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


asked for. This Man, whom the Jew looked upon 
as an offense and with indignation, who seemed so 
little like the Captain of the Lord’s host, must be 
accepted as the incarnation of all power in the 
natural and spiritual realms! The Jew looked for 
a Conqueror and was pointed to a Peasant. While 
he was expecting a God, cleaving the heavens in 
majesty, he was shown a Babe in a manger. While 
he was hoping for a great Leader, who would throw 
off the yoke of Borne, he was presented with a com¬ 
panion of fishermen, and even an associate of pub¬ 
licans and sinners in the streets of the city. While 
he prayed for a conquering Immortal, his faith was 
asked for One who was expiring in agony between 
two malefactors. One could hardly imagine the 
indignation with which he might cry: “He, that 
fellow! He, the Messiah! He, the representative 
of our proud theocracy! He, the answer of the ages 
to the century-long expectation of a Deliverer! He, 
the Saviour of our grand race and nation! He, the 
culmination of the glorious line of patriarchs, 
judges, prophets, and kings! Away with him! 
Away with him! ’ 9 

But it is precisely in these aspects of his shame 
and ignominy that Saint Paul puts the Christ before 
the Hebrew, Greek, and Boman world. He might 
have presented Jesus truthfully as a rabbi, leading 
a liberal movement, casting aside the shell of Juda¬ 
ism and proffering its purified essence as a world- 
religion to the nations; as a tribune of the people, 
undertaking their cause against an oppressive hier¬ 
archy; as a wonderful teacher who thrilled the 
hearts of men; as possessing mysterious and mirac¬ 
ulous powers over nature, disease, and even death 


THE MIRACLE OF POWER IN CHRIST 


21 


itself; as having himself broken open his own tomb 
and ascended to the right hand of God in glory. But, 
ignoring these, he preferred to speak, even to the 
fastidious Greeks, of the cross, of a symbol more 
shameful than the gallows. He takes a poor 
crucified victim and exalts him to the Head of the 
universe. 

While the Greeks regarded that crucifixion with 
scant interest and called it “foolishness’’—only an 
isolated, unrelated event without philosophic signi¬ 
ficance, a death like thousands of others and without 
any particular bearing on life—it has become for 
the world just what Paul declared it was for him— 
both the power of God and the wisdom of God. For 
the modern world, quite as much as the ancient, 
cannot cure humanity of its sin and wretchedness 
through any philosophy, culture, or processes of 
education. Berlin, Paris, London, Boston, New 
York will fail here, with all their arts and schools, 
as Athens, Alexandria, Corinth, and Rome did before 
them. No amount of speculation about the soul, 
matter, nature, the universe, man, time, space, or 
eternity will heal our complaint or bring us spiritual 
health. 

But there is a strange and subtle power in the 
cross. Men to-day worship power. They seek it in 
all the applications of steam and electricity. They 
crave it in their personal influence. And in the 
cross, with its revelation of love and suffering, there 
is a power that the rudest and most barbaric 
acknowledge. The most cultured are not beyond 
being moved by its wondrous pathos. Standing 
before it, after the ages have shown its influence, 
the scoff dies out upon the lips of the scorner, and 


22 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


the heart of the believer swells with a rapture inex¬ 
pressible. Yes, humanity shall indeed conquer by 
that sign! If ever the burden of man’s woe is to be 
lifted from his weary shoulders, if ever the world is 
to be completely reconciled to God, if ever guilt and 
misery are to be banished from the universe, if ever 
a ne^ and glad humanity is to people a purified and 
redeemed earth, it will be through no other instru¬ 
ment than that rough piece of wood upon which a 
life once went out in uttermost agony! 

In the cross of Christ I glory. 

Towering o’er the wrecks of time. 

The Jesus who thus accomplished on that cross 
the world’s redemption Carlyle designated as “our 
Divinest Symbol,” and Schelling characterized as 
the ‘ ‘ turning point of the world’s history. ’ ’ Writers 
on the life of Christ have collected the remarkable 
confessions of great philosophers, poets, historians, 
many of them not “believers” in the technical sense, 
but, rather, strongly under the influence of skep¬ 
ticism and rationalism. It might be expected that 
those who admittedly enroll themselves as disciples 
of Jesus would praise and eulogize him; and, there¬ 
fore, quotations from such theologians, preachers, 
saints, and followers may be said not to be very re¬ 
markable. It may be allowed that their expressions 
of love and admiration are natural, but these do not 
thereby lose their force. On the contrary, they are 
drawn from the deep experiences of a life lived inti¬ 
mately with Christ, from a rich inner consciousness 
touched into being by vital contact with the Vivifier 
himself. 

Nevertheless, when testimony to Christ’s great- 


THE MIRACLE OF POWER IN CHRIST 


23 


ness and influence is given by doubters themselves 
against the marked tendency of their minds to dis¬ 
count the Bible narrative and to minify or repudiate 
altogether the divine and supernatural, their words 
seem to be weighted doubly with significance. 
Strauss bears this witness: “He is the highest object 
we can possibly imagine in respect of religion: the 
Being without w T hose presence in the mind perfect 
piety is impossible.’’ Dr. Congreve, the leader of 
the English Positivists, wrote: 4 ‘ The more truly you 
serve Christ, the more thoroughly you mold your¬ 
selves into his image, the more keen will be your 
sympathy and admiration.” Dr. Martineau held to 
the Unitarian scheme of theology, but he was 
constrained to describe Christ as “the commis¬ 
sioned Prophet, the merciful Redeemer, the inspired 
Teacher, the perfect Model, the heavenly Guide.” 
Matthew Arnold, who found difficulties in accepting 
Christianity’s creed, could yet define God as “the 
Eternal who makes for righteousness, from whom 
Jesus came forth, whose Spirit governs the course 
of humanity.” “Christ,” says Keim, the rational¬ 
ist biographer of Jesus, “is the crown of all the 
creations of God, God’s image, the best-beloved, the 
master-workman and world-shaper in the history of 
mankind. He, and no other, is, and remains, the 
appointed standard bearer of the world’s progress, 
who shall win over the quagmire and the spirits of 
darkness of the nether Cosmos.” Heider’s words 
are: “Jesus Christ is in the noblest and most perfect 
sense the realized ideal of humanity”; and Matthew 
Caludius, one of the people’s poets of Germany, 
writes: “No one ever thus loved as Christ did, or did 
anything so truly great and good as the Bible tells 


24 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


ns of him ever enter into the heart of man. It is a 
holy form which rises before the poor pilgrim like 
a star in the night, and satisfies his innermost crav¬ 
ing, his most secret yearnings and hopes. ’ ’ 

If ever, in moments of reaction and doubt, any 
Christian is troubled with the temptation-suggestion 
that it is beyond probability that any being, so 
exalted and possessing such transcendent power as 
our creed represents Christ as having, could ever 
have lived, it will prove a reassurance and a tonic to 
him to read again these passages from the pens of 
geniuses who, though “perplext in faith/’ felt 
themselves inevitably compelled to acknowledge the 
supremacy of Jesus in the world’s pantheon. 

We are aware that many of these brilliant rhetor¬ 
ical ascriptions do not hold in themselves the full 
content of the Christian’s faith as to the Saviour; 
they do not imply all that our creeds and our beliefs 
affirm. But it is much that they go the lengths they 
do, and they plainly demonstrate the tremendous 
impression that Jesus invariably makes in the great¬ 
est intellects of the race, even those hampered by 
skepticisms, when they put themselves candidly face 
to face with him. In the presence of such frank, 
honest, and glad admission on the part, not only of 
the lofty minds who have bowed in simple faith 
before the Bedeemer of men, but also of those 
imperial thinkers who have found it hard to enter 
the kingdom as little children, an infidelity, full of 
blank denials and irreverent scoffings, becomes, of 
all things, the most shallow and offensive. 

But it is impossible to stop consistently with 
magnifying Jesus as the preeminent genius and 
molding influence of the race in all time. These very 


THE MIRACLE OF POWER IN CHRIST 


25 


encomiums carry us irresistibly further, on the 
assumption that Christ was simply the most remark¬ 
able and potent human being that ever lived. 4 4 With¬ 
out controversy, great is the mystery of godliness; 
He who was manifested in the flesh, justified in the 
spirit, seen of angels, preached among the nations, 
believed on in the world, received up in glory.’’ 
But great as is the mystery involved in accepting the 
Christ of Luke and John, of Paul and Peter, and of 
the evangelical Church throughout the centuries, 
greater still is the mystery in seeking to account for 
the Incarnate One, in his depicted character and 
works and in his incalculable influence on humanity, 
on any merely naturalistic grounds. The effort to 
reduce the Jesus of the Gospels to the scale of other 
men has always met with dismal failure. He stands 
in a class by himself, unique, solitary. 

Hr. Nicoll once wrote, when commenting on Jesus’s 
question, 44 Whom say ye that I am?”: 44 If Jesus 
had any reason to ask whom men took him to be, 
then the answer described is demonstrably wrong. 
For it means that Jesus was nobody in particular, 
whereas the question rests on his consciousness of 
a solitary and incomparable greatness. It was not 
only in the faith of his disciples, but in his own con¬ 
sciousness, that he filled a place which no other 
could fill. No ingenuity of criticism can eliminate 
this from the Gospels. It is as unambiguously pres¬ 
ent in the earlier evangelists as in Joh^j. It is as 
audible in a hundred words of which no mention is 
made of the Christ or the Father as in the most 
articulate statements of Jesus about himself. It is 
revealed when he says, 4 He that loveth father or 
mother more than me is not worthy of me’; or 


26 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


‘Many shall say unto me in that day’; or ‘Come 
unto me, all ye that labor’; or ‘Blessed is he whoso¬ 
ever shall not be offended in me. ’ It is not in names 
and titles and confessions of faith, put upon him by 
the adoring love of others, that Jesus is exhibited to 
us in a solitary and transcendent greatness; it is 
the whole picture in the Gospels which bears this 
character; the Person who is here presented to us 
lives and moves and has his being in it. We are 
debtors to him as we never can be to one another, 
and our relation to him determines everything both 
for our relation to God and to mankind at large. 
It is implied in all this that Jesus, both in relation to 
God and to the human race, was what no other could 
be, and it is such a solitary and incommunicable 
greatness of which we are conscious in every contact 
with him in the Gospels.” 

And so—the last and most serious word—our 
intellectual appreciation of the majesty of Jesus, 
though vastly important, is utterly insufficient if we 
stop with it alone and do not go on to offer him the 
allegiance of our lives in uttermost trust and faith¬ 
ful service. Such a consecration as that is the solv¬ 
ent for all doubts. To quote Dr. Nicoll again: “He 
who has the New Testament faith in Christ, and who 
has been initiated by him into the life which is life 
indeed, knows that life has resources in it which are 
adequate to all the tasks which it encounters in expe¬ 
rience, whatever be their character or scale. It is 
this which assures him, in the last resort, that the 
merely humanitarian conception of Christ is beneath 
the truth; he knows that Christ is actually doing for 
him what can be done by God alone. It is this also 
which forbids pessimism, be the outlook ever so 


THE MIRACLE OP POWER IN CHRIST 


27 


formidable; lie hears the voice of Jesus, < I have 
overcome the world.’ ” 

Robert Browning, as all who have studied his pro¬ 
found poetical works are well aware, was a robust 
believer in the great religious verities, and a vigor¬ 
ous setter-forth of a positive Christian creed. He 
had no sympathy with those who dealt in negations. 
He had no liking for “the exhausted air-bell of the 
critic. ’ ’ 

Sectarian controversies between Papists and Dis¬ 
senters may not be very profitable or enjoyable; they 
may set 

the pure air seething. 

May poison it for healthy breathing. 

But there is something worse than that: 

The critic leaves no air to poison; 

Pumps out with ruthless ingenuity 
Atom by atom, and leaves you—vacuity. 

The critic would fain inquire 

Into the various sources whence 
This Myth of Christ is derivable; 

and, when he had done his best 

The pearl of price, at reason’s test. 

Lay dust and ashes. 

The critic would reduce Christianity to a simple 
system of ethics. To this attempt Browning makes 
conclusive answer, to which some of our present-day 
rationalists might well pay heed: 

What is the point where He himself lays stress? 

Does the precept run “Believe in good. 

In justice, truth, now understood 
For the first time?”—or “Believe in me 
Who lived and died, yet essentially 
Am Lord of Life?” 


28 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


But even for the critic, with his “desiccated brain ,’ 9 
Browning still holds some hope, and he prays: 

When thicker and thicker the darkness fills 
The world through his misty spectacles, 

And he gropes for something more substantial 
Than a fable, myth, or personification— 

May Christ do for him what no mere man shall. 

And stand confessed as the God of salvation! 

Browning’s prayer may well become our own for 
those of our day who have parted from the simple 
faith of the gospel, and have lost themselves in the 
mazes of their own uncertain speculations. This 
Christ of our faith is indeed no “ fable, myth, or per¬ 
sonification. ’ ’ He is one with the Father. He shows 
us the Father in his own life and character. He 
brings us to the Father—to him whom Whittier calls 
4 ‘ The Eternal Goodness. ’ ’ That poem has endeared 
itself to all hearts by its wonderfully gracious and 
winning portraiture of the essential character of the 
all-merciful Father. We echo the words of poor 
Joe, as, dying, he tries to repeat after his friend the 
Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father—yes, that’s werry 
good.” We remember how old Captain Peggotty, in 
“David Copperfield,” starts out on his long quest 
of little Emily, saying, “I am going to seek her far 
and wide. If any hurt should come to me, remember 
that the last words I left for her was ‘My unchanged 
love is with my darling child, and I forgive her.’ ” 
And we feel that God cannot be less tender and for¬ 
giving. 

Herbert Spencer brings the assurance of science 
to faith when he speaks of the “Infinite and Eternal 
Energy” whose presence is everywhere about us; 
but the Christian has a sweeter and dearer name for 


THE MIRACLE OF POWER IN CHRIST 


29 


God than energy. Of necessity, the word “Father’’ 
escapes all the dreary limitations of an agnosticism 
which only knows it cannot know. We know whom 
we have believed—a Father will not keep the knowl¬ 
edge of himself away from his children. Lest man 
should be awed into dumbness by his sublimity 
and vastness, he draws near in familiarness and 
benignity. Materialism vanishes before the spell of 
those two syllables, 11 Father’’—one word crashes 
through and destroys forever all purely mechanical 
constructions of the universe. God is our home in 
all generations. The universe is our Father’s house 
of many mansions. Pantheism, which loses per¬ 
sonality in universality, can give us, with all its 
transcendental and poetical ideas, no such satisfying 
conception and word as Father. Deism, with its 
4 ‘absentee God,” seated on the outer circles of the 
heavens, unconcernedly watching the worlds go 
around, disappears before the thought of Father¬ 
hood. There is no middle ground between Christ’s 
revelation of Deity and atheism. 

If Jehovah’s better name is Father; if he has not 
bound himself, hand and foot, by “natural laws,” 
making himself a prisoner in his own creation; if 
“law” is only the expression of the method of his 
activity, then prayer to him is both reasonable and 
filial, and the supernatural may express itself mirac¬ 
ulously in the natural. That child must be dull 
indeed, or perverse, who never comes to his father 
for communion or request. Likewise, all theological 
schemes, such as those built up on the ideas of fore¬ 
ordination and predestination—“horrible decrees,” 
which implicitly deny the instincts of fatherliness— 
vanish from the oppressed minds of men when they 


30 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


think of God as the Eternal Goodness, and, know¬ 
ing all his grace and truth, they hear Jesus say, 
“I and my Father are one.” The i 4 logic” of an 
abandoned Calvinism might be never so “sound.” 
It contradicted the cardinal instincts and sponta¬ 
neous impulses of the human heart, and men turned 
from Calvin to Christ. 

It is seen that all Christian theology is wrapped 
up in that word “Father.” The parable of the 
prodigal son is a whole “scheme of redemption.” 
Hugh Price Hughes contended that the central 
figure in that parable is not the son, but the seeking 
father. The whole secret of man’s salvation is in 
his return to God the Father. His relation as a son 
is not forfeited by his sin. “He arose and came to 
his father”—his father still. God’s forgiveness is 
as unconstrained, simple, and pathetic as the 
father’s in the parable. 

By his life and death Christ manifested this love 
of God. He did not make it “possible for God to 
forgive, ’ ’ but declared his everlasting willingness to 
forgive. 

Ye praise his justice; even such 
His pitying love I deem. 

He is “just to forgive.” “The Father himself 
loveth you.” “God so loved the world.” The love 
of God was not a sequence to the sacrifice of Christ; 
it originated it. “He gave his only-begotten son.” 
Christ said not only, “The Father is in me,” but 
also, “I am in the Father.” The Christ-nature, with 
all its humanness and pity, incarnated in Jesus, was 
eternal in the heart of God. Therefore no picture 
of the Crucified, smitten with sympathy for our 
sins and sorrows, placating and pleading before 


THE MIRACLE OF POWER IN CHRIST 


31 


“offended and outraged” Justice, can truthfully 
represent the relations of Father and Son. It is the 
Christus Consolator, who is forevermore in the 
bosom of the Father himself, who is our Advocate. 
It is only another way of expressing the everlasting 
compassion of God himself. It is the Christ-God 
who is our Judge. The “plan of salvation” is as 
simple as the sweet relationships of the home life, 
where a father finds nothing in his way to prevent 
his forgiving and restoring his repentant child. It 
is a vast pity that the Church has been so long 
encumbered with artificial programs of salvation, 
drawn up by political ecclesiastics, who formalized 
Christianity, from the procedure of the Roman law 
courts. 

Who fathoms the Eternal Thought? 

Who talks of scheme and plan? 

The Lord is God! He needeth not 

The poor device of man! 

Jonathan Edwards’s famous sermon on “Sinners 
in the Hands of an Angry God” has been recently 
reissued and circulated in pamphlet form by a cer¬ 
tain denominational publishing house. We are at 
a loss to understand the reason for putting such 
sentiments before this age, unless it be to excite 
universal repulsion. Doubtless Edwards was greatly 
stirred over the laxity and immoralities of his times, 
and perhaps there was much to justify his terrible 
presentations. He was also full of burning evangel¬ 
istic zeal to save men from perdition. But such 
representations as those of his opening sentences 
only serve to shock us to-day, as when he says: 
“There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one 
moment out of hell but the mere pleasure of God. 


32 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


By the mere pleasure of God I mean his sovereign 
pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obliga¬ 
tion.' * “We find it easy to tread on and crush a 
worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy 
for us to cut or singe a slender thread that anything 
hangs by; thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to 
cast his enemies down to hell. ’ * There is no excuse 
to-day for even any apparent indorsement of such 
descriptions of the Father in heaven—the Eternal 
Goodness—as this: “The God that holds you over 
the pit of hell, much in the same way as one holds a 
spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors 
you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath toward 
you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy 
of nothing else but to be cast into the fire." We 
must still preach the divine displeasure against sin 
and the judgments against iniquity; but it must not 
be in such repulsive phraseology and forms of 
thought as these. Let this sermon remain as a land¬ 
mark of the past, something to be read as a piece 
of lurid literature; but let its representations of God 
be forgotten forever! Let us congratulate ourselves 
that we have a more glorious and winning doctrine 
to-day to proclaim. We are convinced that there is 
a most urgent necessity for preaching the great doc¬ 
trines of Christianity with all the light that our latest 
and best thinking can throw upon them. And we 
bring with us an eminent witness to corroborate our 
contention—Dr. Henry van Dyke, preacher, poet, 
essayist, whose three addresses entitled “Joy and 
Power" many have had much satisfaction in read¬ 
ing. He does not believe at all in any such emas¬ 
culated Christianity as would result should our faith 
be reduced to a mere ethical system, and should its 


THE MIRACLE OF POWER IN CHRIST 33 

characteristic doctrines be eliminated or ignored. 
“You might as well propose,’’ he says, “to fit a ship 
for service by taking out its compass and its charts 
and cutting off its rudder; make Christianity silent 
in regard to these great questions of spiritual 
existence, and you destroy its power to satisfy the 
heart.” 

This is well stated. The soul of man wants some 
truths of ideal and transcendental character that 
reach out into the unseen, and take hold of that 
which is beyond the veil. It demands the super¬ 
natural. Its thirst is for the living God. Its proper 
food is those great truths concerning the soul and 
its Creator; concerning sin and salvation; concern¬ 
ing repentance, forgiveness, atonement, duty, and 
immortality. 

We believe with Dr. van Dyke that what the people 
want is not silence in our pulpits about the person¬ 
ality of God, the divinity of Christ, the presence and 
power of the Holy Spirit, the sovereignty of the 
heavenly Father, the truth of the divine revelation, 
the reality of the heavenly world. Such preachers 
as those who, out of an extreme fear of “doctrinal 
preaching,” or led by the advice of some rather 
shallow church member who insists on what he calls 
“practical preaching,” leave out from their pulpit 
themes such tremendous subjects, and feed their 
people on minute dissections of comparatively unim¬ 
portant texts or the presentations of neat little 
dissertations on various moralities, we are convinced 
are making a fundamental mistake. They will soon 
come to the end of their pretty philosophizings and 
the stream of their thought will run in shallows. 

Dr. van Dyke is right when he says: ‘ ‘ What the 


34 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


world wants and waits for to-day is a strong, true, 
vital preaching of doctrine. The Church must 
realize anew the precious value of the truths that 
Christ has given her. She must not conceal them or 
cast them away; she must bring them into the light, 
press them home upon the minds and hearts of men. 
She must simplify her statement of them so that men 
may understand what they mean. She must not be 
content with repeating them in the language of past 
centuries. She must translate them into the lan¬ 
guage of to-day. First-century texts will never wear 
out because they are inspired. But seventeenth- 
century sermons grow obsolete because they are 
not inspired. Texts from the Word of God, preach¬ 
ing in the words of living men—that is what we 
need . 91 

Such a statement explains excellently the ever- 
recurring need in each generation of what is called 
a “new theology,” and which is frequently looked 
upon with suspicion by those who cling to the old 
method of statement tenaciously. But it is not a 
new form of religion that is proposed, but precisely 
the same blessed old religion in a phraseology which 
shall make it understood by the people in the forms 
of thought and the style of speech then current. 
There is the same necessity that the twentieth 
century should have its new theology as there was 
that the eighteenth century, which found its want 
supplied in the preaching of John Wesley and his 
Methodist followers, should have a theology adapted 
to its particular needs. 

In one sense the demand for “practical preach¬ 
ing” is a legitimate one. But the practice, the moral 
code, must flow out of the heart of some great 


THE MIRACLE OF POWER IN CHRIST 


35 


doctrine which is none other than a great practice- 
able truth of God, expressly revealed for the for¬ 
mulation and guidance of human lives. Our modern 
mind obeys a right impulse when it declines to listen 
to much speculation which leads nowhither—which 
has no possible application to conduct—which comes 
out nowhere close to the daily interests of men’s 
business and bosoms. To quote Van Dyke once 
more: “We can afford to let the fine metaphysical 
distinctions of theology rest for awhile, and throw 
all our force on the central, fundamental truths 
which give steadiness and courage and cheer to the 
heart of man . 9 9 

It was on these great underlying and everlasting 
primal verities of the soul and of all existence that 
Christ put the main emphasis. In obedience to these 
divine instincts, met in their gropings by the light of 
God’s revelation, he would have all men find their 
perpetual happiness and peace. As long as- in this 
world there are sin and sorrow, as long as the human 
heart has woe and life has passion and mystery, 
the voice of the preacher who can bring forth 
the majestic, solemn, and inspiring teachings to 
strengthen and console will have an ineffable sweet¬ 
ness for the ears of struggling and suffering men. 


CHAPTER II 

The Opposing Power of Sin 

Robert Ingersoll used to declare that he did not 
believe in hell, but that he did believe in conse¬ 
quences. He imagined that he had contradicted the 
orthodox dogma, but he had simply stated over 
again what Christ said about the tree and its fruits, 
and what Saint Paul said in Galatians: “Be not 
deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth 
unto his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but 
he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit 
reap life eternal. ,, The only way of escaping evil 
consequences is to cease setting evil acts into opera¬ 
tion, and to put forth only good thoughts and good 
deeds which shall have their proper consequences. 

A recent writer, Orlando J. Smith, has written a 
very suggestive volume entitled “Balance.’’ In it 
he shows that throughout the universe there is every¬ 
where the law of equivalence working. Every cause 
must have an equivalent effect, every effect an ade¬ 
quate cause. Matter and force are indestructible 
and persistent. Effects follow causes in unbroken 
succession. To every action there is an equal and 
opposite reaction. When one form of energy dis¬ 
appears, its exact equivalent in another form always 
takes its place. 

And the author clearly shows that not only in 
nature at large and as regards man physically does 
this law hold, but also for man on his moral and spir- 
36 


THE OPPOSING POWER OF SIN 37 

itnal side. “Is there one law for physical inter¬ 
action, and a different law, or no law, for intellectual 
and moral interaction? Does compensation exist 
for matter and force only, or does it exist also for 
the human soul?” “As the value of a machine or 
implement is shown in its working, and the value of 
a tree by its fruit, so the merit or demerit of food, 
drink, medicine, acts, and thoughts is determined by 
their results, reactions, or effects—by their conse¬ 
quences.” We are unable to think of antecedents and 
consequences as being other than exact—of peaches 
as growing on apple trees, or of acorns that produce 
potatoes. The measure of truth and falsehood will 
be found in their equivalents—in their antecedents 
and consequences.” “All things are to be had for 
the buying. The price of glory is to do something 
glorious. The price of shame is to do something 
shameful. Friendship, glory, honor, admiration, 
infamy, contempt, hatred are all in the market place 
for sale at a price. Even beauty is for sale. Beauty 
is not in the features alone; it is in the soul also.” 

“Each day,” as Emerson said, “is a Day of 
Judgment.” God is working through nature and 
the moral system of the universe in making up the 
great account, in settling with every man. “We see 
no books, observe no management, and yet the 
numberless settlements are made with as much 
exactness as if each one were superintended by a 
group of experts, combining more of knowledge and 
justice than are possessed by all of the mathemati¬ 
cians, scientists, thinkers, philosophers, and judges 
in the world.” There is a Supreme Power which 
ordains this “principle of order, right, and justice 
which regulates the affairs of the world.” 


38 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


God is of a truth not mocked. Whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he reap. Every man will get just 
what he deserves—just what he has worked for. 

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices 
Make instruments to plague us. 

This truth must be proclaimed with earnestness, 
emphasis, and reiteration from our pulpits. We are 
living in a time when it is popularly said that 4 4 hell 
is burned out. ’ ’ But the equivalents of the old-time 
fire and brimstone are here yet and will be forever. 
No one can offend the great laws of the universe and 
get off scot free. God is not so “easy.” Everyone 
that in virtue is on his side shall, without fail, receive 
the reward of virtue in its consequences in holiness. 
Heaven and hell are absolute, eternal, inevitable. 
There is nothing local or temporary about the 
theology of the first psalm. Forever shall it be well 
with the righteous. Forever shall it be ill with the 
wicked. And no man can dodge results. 

Men must be warned, and warned again and again 
with solemnity of these awful truths. He that 
sinneth wrongeth his own soul. The soul that 
sinneth it shall die. The mind of the flesh is death. 
The mind of the spirit is life and peace. Men living 
in carelessness and recklessness, scoffing at hell and 
penalty, going heedlessly on in a fancied but inane 
sense of security, must be arrested by the stem 
voice of the prophets of God, and made to pause and 
reflect on the inescapable issues of such courses. 

And, every day, Christians must likewise ponder 
these laws well. They are universal, and apply to 
them as to all. Every minutest act—every “idle 
word”—must have its equivalent, its consequence. 


THE OPPOSING POWER OP SIN 


39 


There can be no cause without an effect. Every 
planting means a reaping. We live in a solemn and 
very real world which brooks no jesting or fooling. 

Oscar Wilde, the poet, who died in 1900, spent his 
last years in an English prison for having com¬ 
mitted unmentionable impurities. He left an auto¬ 
biography which is tragic in its confessions. His 
words ought to sink deep into the soul of every man 
tempted to sin. He says: ‘‘If I must say to myself 
that I ruined myself, and that nobody, great or small, 
can be ruined except by his own hand, I am quite 
ready to say so. This pitiless indictment I bring 
without pity against myself. Terrible as was what 
the world did to me, what I did to myself was far 
more terrible still. I let myself be lured into long 
spells of scandals and sensual ease. I amused myself 
with being a dandy, a man of fashion. I surrounded 
myself with the smaller natures and the meaner 
minds. I became the spendthrift of my own genius, 
and to waste an eternal youth gave me a curious 
joy. Tired of being on the heights, I deliberately 
went to the depths in the search for new sensations. 
Desire at the end was a malady, or a madness, or 
both. I grew careless of the lives of others. I took 
pleasure where it pleased me and passed on.” 

He mourns thus over his mother’s death, which 
occurred in the second year of his imprisonment: 
“No one knows how deeply I loved and honored her. 
Her death was terrible to me, but I, once a lord of 
language, have no words in which to express my 
anguish and my shame. She and my father had 
bequeathed me a name they had made noble and 
honored, not merely in literature, art, archaeology, 
and science, but in the public history of my own 


40 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


country—in its evolution as a nation. I had dis¬ 
graced that name eternally, I had made *it a low 
byword among low people. I had dragged it through 
the very mire. I had given it to brutes that they 
might make it brutal, and to fools that they might 
turn it into a synonym for folly .’ 9 

Who can read such a confession and revelation as 
that without feeling profoundly the vast significance 
of moral choices f Every soul must have its election 
days, when it must definitely express its will in 
regard to great moral and spiritual issues. The old 
alternative of God or Baal is forevermore presenting 
itself under every variety of modern form. Life and 
good are being constantly set over against death 
and evil, and come before us perpetually for our 
adjudication. Questions vaster in their eternal 
import than those of capital and labor, imperialism, 
currency, tariff, the control of trusts, are being 
decided daily by common men everywhere, but no 
one notes the profound meaning of these trans¬ 
actions. The minor choices of men as to their places 
of residence, their businesses, their political and 
social affiliations are not to be brought into compar¬ 
ison with those which touch the deepest interests of 
the spiritual life. 

This power of choice, this endowment of solemn 
responsibility, is one of the profoundest mysteries 
which belong to humanity. It involves all the world- 
old inexplicable enigmas which center about man’s 
free agency, the foreknowledge and foreordination 
of God, and the insoluble problem of evil. It 
negatives any purely fatalistic philosophy, any 
theology which at once puts man helplessly under 
the relentless grasp of necessity and divine compul- 


THE OPPOSING POWER OF SIN 


41 


sion, and then holds him accountable for his acts. 
It is the title deed for our greatness. Our choice 
must be our own. In every political campaign, after 
the speeches and letters of acceptance, the ratifica¬ 
tion meetings, the addresses of campaign orators, 
the distribution of literature, the appeals of the 
newspapers, the organization of clubs, the quiet 
activity of individuals—after all this, it is the voter 
who must decide for himself and by himself how he 
will cast his ballot. So men may try to influence 
their fellows; parents, by training, example, and 
precept, may seek to secure virtue in their children; 
pastors, by exhortation and private pleading, may 
endeavor to lead their brother men into ways of 
righteousness; friends, by loving companionship and 
sympathetic counsel, may attempt to exert a potent 
influence for good. But after all is said and done, in 
the final event, every man, despite all that God or 
men can do for him, is the determiner of his own 
destiny for weal or woe. No fact in the universe is 
fuller of more solemn responsibility than this. The 
starry heavens, the moral law, and man’s responsi¬ 
bility—these have been declared to be the three 
things which should fill the mind with the greatest 
awe. For time and eternity we are sovereigns of 
our own fate. 

In the body politic national elections fall on some 
specific day of the year and after an interval of 
years; in the spiritual realm they are ordered daily 
and hourly. The polls are always open. Determina¬ 
tions which may involve crises are as numerous as 
the calendared months. Mistakes may figure as 
fatalities. In governmental matters changes of ad¬ 
ministration may, indeed, have considerable weight 


42 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


and far-reaching effects. But no such results 
can measure with the outcome of the count in the 
spirit’s booth. At a presidential election a nation is 
the intensely interested participator and spectator. 
At the soul’s election friends on earth and in heaven, 
the angels, Christ and God wait in prayerful hope 
and expectation. If the majority blunder at the 
nation’s polls, many years may be required to rectify 
the resulting bad legislation. If the soul shall choose 
wrongly, it will travel many a mile of suffering and 
loss before its perilous mistake is remedied. 

At the country’s ballot boxes the voters drop 
secret ballots. They fall silently, but they are 
decisive. So secretly and silently does the soul 
record its preference for the good or the evil. There 
can be no split ticket—no division between God and 
mammon—in that voting. No citizen who ignomin- 
iously remains at home on election day can avoid his 
share of responsibility for what was then done. And 
no one can escape deciding by imagining that he will 
not decide the great questions of the soul and 
eternity. And we may be sure that every vote in 
the precinct of the soul’s dominion will be counted. 
There is a self-registering contrivance for this pur¬ 
pose. 

Sometimes men, under stress of conviction, feel 
that they must sever their old party ties, and go, 
with whatever sense of pain, into the new cause. 
Thus often does it cost the soul some agony to break 
up its old connections and choose the new path of 
truth; but that path leads to the House of Peace. 
And as, after the battle of the ballots, the country 
recovers from its perturbation and excitements and 
settles down into regularity, so, in conversion and 


THE OPPOSING POWER OF SIN 43 

in all the critical judgments which the soul must 
make, after “the great transaction” is done there 
is an entering into a serenity which is like a bene¬ 
diction. 

Everyone will he able to illustrate these truths 
out of his own experience. One of the writer’s early 
acquaintances was a certain rich man who, in the 
political and social life of the community, exercised 
a rather wide influence which was distinctly perni¬ 
cious. Of large physique, aggressive personality, 
sociable disposition, considerable wealth, a college 
graduate and an offhand, ready speaker, he had no 
small following in the town. He was an infidel with 
a library of anti-Christian books. Despite his 
liberal culture, it was his delight to deliver ha¬ 
rangues to a collection of barroom loafers against 
Christianity and the churches. He owned the opera 
house of the place. We remember that once, at a 
concert given there by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, he 
entered and marched up to the front just as the 
company were singing, “0, you’d better believe the 
Bible!” and “0, you’d better be converted!” with 
many repetitions. A smile went through the 
audience. And yet it would, indeed, have been better 
for him had he believed the Bible and been converted. 
For he died a drunken sot, leaving to his wife, an 
estimable lady, and his children the memory of a 
dishonored name. 

In the same town there was a prominent lawyer— 
a boon companion of the man just described—who 
had been educated for the ministry, but had turned 
his back on the call, gone into pot-house politics, and 
associated with scoffers at religion. One of his 
favorite jibes in public was that “religion was good 


44 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


enough for women and children.” Big, grown-up 
men, though, he asserted, wanted none of it. How¬ 
ever, it would not have hurt him to have just a 
little. It might have saved him from dying from 
delirium tremens. Verily the results of choice are 
tragic beyond expression. 

In the face of such incalculable consequences, one 
way or the other, what consummate folly is the 
affected policy of indifferentism as to religion! The 
attitude of Gallio, who “ cared for none of these 
things ’’ which were matters of such vital importance 
to Paul and the Jews, is one that characterizes too 
many people in this day. The momentous questions 
of religion are not conceived of as either urgent or 
very practical. An unconverted, strenuous business 
man will sometimes imply that such things are like 
the query as to whether the planets are inhabited or 
not. He is inclined to regard religion as a kind of 
luxury more than a necessity—a refinement, like 
poetry or music, introduced into life, and not a life 
itself. Religion, in his mind, means going to church 
and listening to sermons and choir music. “It’s 
good enough/’ he says, “if a man has time and 
inclination for it. It’s an accomplishment, and a 
very nice thing for people who care for it.” As for 
him, he does not oppose nor doubt particularly. He 
simply lets it alone, as something with which he has 
no present concern. It has little or no relevancy to 
him, such as a matter of profits, or health, or the 
insurance of property might have. Consequently, 
as long as there are other pressing things to be 
attended to there is no call for immediate action 
about religion. 

But the great problems of life and death are 


THE OPPOSING POWER OP SIN 


45 


not to be so easily disposed of. The claims of Christ 
cannot be so lightly brushed aside. Engrossment in 
business cannot excuse a man for forgetting his soul. 
The means of life must not overtop its ends. The 
great revelations of the Bible are not annulled 
because of men’s inattention to them. Religion is 
not an accidental and omittable supplement to our 
existence, but the very first and indispensable 
essential of it. It is not a specialty, like a science or 
an art, but a universal necessity for all. Salvation 
and destiny are not to be contemplated in an attitude 
of half-amused curiosity. A recent writer, in a 
pamphlet on “Choosing” in religion, indicates the 
right mental condition: ‘ ‘ The mind should be 
aroused, but not frantic with excitement. To be 
thoroughly awake, however, and prepared to take 
in the whole situation, with all its possibilities, 
whether of life or death, is to be in the most favor¬ 
able condition for choosing wisely and for executing 
vigorously and with dispatch. Such choosing and 
executing, in relation to the soul’s eternal interests, 
men can neglect only at their deadliest peril. ’ ’ 

For every man shall come into judgment for the 
deeds done in his body. And that judgment is none 
the less executed by the immediate action of Divine 
Justice because it is automatic. In Jesus’s parable 
of the judgment, in the twenty-fifth chapter of Mat¬ 
thew, we are not to literalize throne, sheep, goats, 
questions, responses, sentences, right hand and left. 
All processes of judgment are in the spirit and are 
automatic. Paul expresses it well when he says, 
“We must all be made manifest [Revised Version] 
before the judgment seat of Christ.” What we 
essentially are will be clearly discerned and dis- 


46 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


played by the inevitable contrast between ourselves 
and the perfect ideal. As we stand within the 
illumination which emanates from his peerless per¬ 
sonality, all that we are, either in perfection or 
imperfection, will come out with startling vividness. 
No syllable may be actually spoken, but the soul shall 
hear within, clear and distinct, as the record of its 
own life frames itself into a voice for God, the 
“Come ye” or the “Depart ye.” This revelation, 
which is also a pronouncement, is inevitable and 
inescapable. We must be made manifest. In every 
instant of time we are thus manifest. In the future 
it will not be different. Now and always our ideals 
and motives are brought into constant and necessary 
comparison with incarnated perfection. There is a 
moral imperative. We cannot run away from our 
own consciousness and inner self-confession. It 
would be as useless as foolish to call upon the 
rocks to cover us or the mountains to hide us from 
the face of Him who sitteth upon the throne. 

This judgment is a general one. It is as universal 
as it is necessary. It is for rich and poor, high and 
low, ruler and subjects. There are none exempt, 
nor can be. The pure white light of truth exposes 
all error, and all defaulting from absolute righteous¬ 
ness will be made visible as it is set beside that 
truth’s perfect incarnation in Him who could say, 
“I am the truth.” The Greek inscription on the 
temple at Delphos was “Know thyself.” But we 
can know ourselves only as the Christ stands before 
us and, by his sinless purity and transcendent holi¬ 
ness, shows us what we are in comparison. All 
things then become naked and are laid open before 
the eyes of Him with whom we have to do, and to 


THE OPPOSING POWER OF SIN 


47 


ourselves also. For this incarnate Word of God 
is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged 
sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and 
spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to 
discern the thoughts and intents of the heart; and 
there is no creature that is not manifest in his sight. 

This sort of judgment insures perfect equity. It 
looks not at this or that single act, but at the char¬ 
acter as a whole—at the total personality in its 
registration of every thought, word, and act. And 
there will be perfect fairness. For in that character 
all the contributions of birth, education, environ¬ 
ment, temperament will be evident. It will not be 
the bad only that will be discernible, but all the good 
that has been wrought out by prayer and struggle. 
And men shall be judged by the main intent and 
drift of their lives, either as selfish or unselfish, 
either as doing or not doing the loving deed unto 
the least of one of Christ’s brethren. There will be 
no Draco to pass cruel or arbitrary judgments. The 
Judge is one who can be touched with the feeling of 
our infirmities, and has been in all points tempted 
like as we are, yet without sin. If the real desire 
and striving of men have been to be like unto him, no 
matter what falling-off from actual realization there 
may be, he counts the will for the deed, faith for 
righteousness. 

Christians should court, and not shun, this judg¬ 
ment by contrast with the standard in Christ. They 
cannot evade it if they would, but they ought not to 
want to escape it, but, rather, to welcome it. What¬ 
ever in them needs correction they should pray to 
be brought out into the light. Not in fear but in 
joy should they cry, “Thou, God, seest me!” For 


48 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


God is no prison turnkey, but the Lover of our 
souls. Our prayer to him should be, “Search me 
and know my heart, try me and know my thought. ’’ 
He is no captious and meanly critical God. Christ 
does not set himself over us in lofty, supercilious 
pride of superior goodness, nor look with contempt 
and scorn upon our poor performance, if he knows 
we have actually tried to please him and be like him. 
He regards us with brotherliness and sympathy, 
and, when we fall, forgives and inspires us to 
renewed effort in his imitation. 

And no one who knows himself a sinner, as he 
stands revealed to himself in the radiance of 
Christ’s matchless whiteness, need feel despair. He 
might well ask how he shall stand in His sight before 
whom the heavens themselves are impure. But the 
judgment is not for condemnation but for salvation. 
The revelation of one’s true self is the beginning of 
all reformation. “And when he came to him¬ 
self ...” Let the sinner, indeed, gaze at the Christ 
until the innermost secrets of his soul are revealed. 
He will then see how far he has departed from the 
normal and ideal. He will see his better self 
revealed in the Christ, and, instead of a Judge who 
will take advantage of his sorry plight to overwhelm 
him with shame and confusion, he will find One who 
comes seeking to save, reassure, cleanse, restore, 
purify, strengthen, uplift, ennoble. Let him, then, 
welcome each judgment of the Christ that he hears 
uttered in the depths of his heart. 

But let him realize the fearful reality and the 
startling tragedy of sin, that he may be moved with 
an adequate contrition and voice his repentance in 
deepest sincerity. In some quarters there is found 


THE OPPOSING POWER OF SIN 


49 


to-day a tendency to minimize or altogether deny the 
fact of sin and its significance. A certain noted 
writer lately discoursed on the “ Consciousness of 
Sin.” He apparently does not lament the fact of 
the seeming decay of the consciousness of sin, and 
that so few sermons are preached at present on the 
sinfulness of the human heart. He contends that 
the decreased sense of sin does not indicate a gen¬ 
eral decline of religion, hut that the conviction of 
individual responsibility and the quickening of con¬ 
science along the whole range or religious interests 
was never more manifest. He believes that much of 
the strenuous feeling concerning sin arose from a 
false dualism, which made God and the devil equal 
powers, and from the exaggerated emphasis laid 
upon Adam’s transgression, as either inherited or 
imputed to the race. He holds that the old view was 
largely negative, and has been supplanted by an 
appeal to higher motives than the self-regarding 
fear of 4 ‘ the terrors of the law. ’ ’ The preference is 
given to the emphasis on positive good in every 
sphere of life. There is the “shifting of interest 
from the evils that are to be feared to the good that 
is to be worked for.” 

We may possibly recognize considerable philos¬ 
ophy in this analysis of the apparent decay of the 
consciousness of sin. Yet we would that the writer 
had expressed, in unmistakably strong language, 
abhorrence both for sins as definite evil acts and for 
sin as the state of the soul, the perverted condition 
of the being, from which they arise. And there will 
be many who will not agree with his interpretation 
of the life and teaching of Jesus upon this point 
when he says, “With the possible exception of his 


50 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


denunciation of the Pharisees, it does not appear 
that Jesus made any effort to induce a feeling of 
being guilty and lost. ’’ 

It has, on the contrary, always seemed to thought¬ 
ful theologians that the Christ, who came preaching 
repentance of sin; who was the Lamb of God taking 
away the sin of the world; who was himself, in his 
death, the propitiation for our sins and for the sins 
of the whole world; who promised the Holy Spirit 
to convince the world of sin and judgment for sin, 
made of sin an awful and tremendous reality. He 
came not to condemn the world but to save the 
world. But to save it from what if not from its 
sin and consequent degradation and damnation? 
And there can be no salvation until there is the 
awakening of the mind to its true condition and 
its peril. There must be conviction, and a resolute 
turning away from wickedness to goodness. There 
is no unhealthy morbidness about the awakening 
penitent when he sings, 

“Just as I am, thou wilt receive, 

Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve.” 

Jesus, by his searching words, his lofty ideals of 
duty, and the sinlessness and perfect holiness of his 
own life, awakens immediately, by inevitable con¬ 
trast, the feeling of insufficiency, the sense of sin 
and shame in every heart. He “gives a spiritual 
edge to life’s judgments and revives the voice of con¬ 
science within us. ’’ We are all thus ‘ ‘made manifest 
before the judgment seat of Christ.” He tells us 
all things that ever we did. Therefore when any 
writer asserts that the religious instinct of mankind 
at large, as shown in the history of religion, gives 


THE OPPOSING POWER OF SIN 


51 


to the sense of sin no predominant place, we must 
take issue with him. To our mind, the whole struggle 
of the race, as shown in its religious systems, has 
been an effort to find some way of salvation from 
its sin and its consequent misery. 

It has been remarked by many writers how little 
Emerson seemed to make of the fact of sin in the 
world, and what an element of fatal weakness this 
introduced into his philosophy. In certain other 
directions there is an attempt being made to elimi¬ 
nate sin from the catalogue of facts. The expositors 
of Christian Science argue that as darkness is only 
an absence of light, so sin is only an absence of good¬ 
ness—a mere nonentity. Having flown in the face 
of fact and common sense by a denial of matter, of 
bodies, and pain, these false reasoners would thus 
easily get rid of the hideous sinfulness of the human 
soul by the short and easy process of simply deny¬ 
ing its existence. Well does Washington Gladden 
reply to this sophistry in such sound and vigorous 
words as these: “By all the biblical philosophers sin 
is regarded as possessing the same relation to the 
moral character that death has to the physical organ¬ 
ism. To say that sin is a nonentity—that there is no 
such thing—is to deny the most terrible fact within 
human knowledge. In truth, there is no evil in this 
universe but an evil will; but an evil will is just as 
much a reality as a good will is; and any theory 
which blurs this distinction or tries to put it out of 
sight is not merely ridiculous, it is pestiferous; there 
is palsy and perdition of the soul for those who dare 
to live by it .’ 9 Indeed, no heresy could be more 
threatening to the spiritual part of man. And those 
mistaken people who assert their own sinlessness, 


52 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


say that they are proof against temptation, and 
refuse longer to pray, “Lead us not into tempta¬ 
tion,” stand in the same awful danger. 

By certain agnostic evolutionists also sin seems 
to be regarded simply as an imperfect state of 
development, and, hence, a normal stage in progress 
upward from brutehood. And pantheism, finding 
that which is called evil as well as good in the uni¬ 
verse which it deifies, is bound to say that the one is 
as necessary and divine as the other. 

A recent writer challenges the average man to 
review his life, and say if he “will not find that his 
dominant and deepest note, his daily habit of thought 
or life, his thousand-times-repeated characteristic 
has been, not a noble loving and choosing of the 
highest when he saw it, but some worldly ‘lust of the 
eyes’ or sensual ‘lust of the flesh.’ The man has 
known the better and has chosen and done the worst. 
The question with every soul must ever be, ‘What 
will God say?’ These solemn apprehensions, which 
arise in the mind of the man who perceives that he is 
a sinful man, come not from the thought of God as 
wicked and unjust and unholy, but, on the very con¬ 
trary, from the thought of him as righteous and just 
and holy—in other words, from a true, not an untrue 
thought of what God is. . . . And, without the small¬ 
est morbidness or superstition, but only with moral 
sanity and seriousness, may it be asked, Wherewithal 
shall we, who cannot stand before our consciences, 
stand before the Searcher of hearts and not be over¬ 
whelmed? The question may be evaded, but it 
remains. ’ ’ 

In the light of such considerations we are thor¬ 
oughly convinced that there ought to be a more fre- 


THE OPPOSING POWER OP SIN 53 

quent, fervent, and convincing preaching to-day of 
4 ‘the exceeding sinfulness of sin.” All sorts of 
sermons are preached nowadays. All ‘ ‘ movements , 9 9 
reforms, causes, social creeds and projects, educa¬ 
tional and civil theories, have themselves presented 
in the pulpit. About every Sunday in the year is pre¬ 
empted for some “day” or other. But, while we 
believe that it is absolutely essential that the min¬ 
ister be public-spirited, we are in accord with one 
who says that “his chief mission is to make men 
realize their accountability to God, and to bring them 
into right relations with God, and if he does not do 
this he misses the mark.” It is easy to inflame an 
audience against the doctrines of anarchy, but per¬ 
haps many of the hearers are living, as far as God 
is concerned, in practical atheism and anarchy in 
their daily lives. We have not enough preaching 
to-day—loving but trenchant, kindly but incisive, 
coming to the erring individual with the sentence 
“Thou art the man”—upon the terrible fact of sin—- 
not simply of sins, specific and definable, but of the 
underlying sinful disposition of the heart. 

The writer to whom we referred above is right, 
and we quote his words with a strong indorsement 
of the need of speaking them now: “The value of 
all preaching and hearing depends upon a profound 
sense of personal responsibility. But appeals to the 
individual are being dropped. He is not called upon 
to repent of his own sins, but to join in a hazy, 
indefinite movement against the sins of the public. 
Preaching is shot into the air, aiming at nobody in 
particular, and at a little of everything in general. 
As a result, individuals are not convinced of sin, and 
the cry, ‘ Wfiat shall I do to be saved V is not heard.” 


54 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


But frequently men take refuge from the indict¬ 
ments of the preacher and the accusations of a dis¬ 
turbed conscience by narcotizing their minds with 
some specious fatalistic philosophy, as if they were 
born with an ineradicable birthmark and fated inev¬ 
itably to whatever sin their lives have brought forth. 
Many are acquainted with a tragedy in four acts— 
“Paola and Francesca”—a book which a few years 
ago stirred the literary world. It is the work of Mr. 
Stephen Phillips, a young English poet who gives the 
largest promise of genius, and who will undoubtedly 
make a world-famous name for himself before our 
century is very old. The poem must make a deep 
impression when acted, for it is as simple in its broad 
outlines and strong delineations of characters and 
situations as are the old Greek tragedies. But it is 
with the ethical bearings of the poem that we wish 
just now to deal. It illustrates the very sophistry 
with which we believe many are to-day deluding 
themselves as to sin. 

Francesca, a young woman of remarkable beauty 
and grace, has just been wedded to Giovanni, the 
Tyrant, or military ruler, of Rimini. Paola is 
brother to Giovanni, much younger and handsomer 
than he, and passionately loved from youth by his 
older brother. It is he who brings the fair bride 
from Ravenna. From the moment they met Paola 
and Francesca were strongly attracted toward each 
other. It seemed to them as if they had known and 
loved each other from all eternity, and that their 
souls had intersphered in some previous state of 
existence. Giovanni innocently trusts Francesca 
largely to the watchcare of Paola. They both 
struggle against the guilty love. Paola seeks to flee 


THE OPPOSING POWER OF SIN 


55 


from it, endeavors to poison himself; but in vain. 
Francesca makes futile efforts to suppress her 
attachment. Such lines as these will show how 
inevitable their passion is represented to be: 

Unwillingly lie comes a-wooing; she ' 

Unwillingly is wooed; yet shall they woo. 

His kiss was on her lips ere she was horn. 

“Howe’er I sentineled my bosom, yet 
That moment would arrive when instantly 
Our souls would flash together in one flame.” 

“And seems it strange that I should come, then? 

No, it seems that it could not he otherwise.” 

They appeared to themselves like Lancelot and 
Guinevere, who were drawn, with seemingly irresist¬ 
ible fascination, to each other. The mesh is woven 
more and more intricately and tightly. At last their 
passion has its consummation, and they succumb to 
sin, even though Francesca shudders and asks: 

“Ah, Paola, if we 

Should die to-night, then whither would our souls 
Repair?” 

And then she says: 

“There is a region which priests tell of, 

Where such as we are punished without end.” 

But Paola flings this burning defiance at sin and 
fear and punishment, and vindicates their passion 
and guilt in these splendidly poetic but startling 
words; 

“What can we fear, we two? 

O God, thou seest us, thy creatures, hound 
Together by that law which holds the stars 
In palpitating cosmos passion-bright; 

By which the very sun enthralls the earth, 

And all the waves of the world faint to the moon. 


56 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


Even by such attraction we two rush 
Together through the everlasting years. 

Us, then, whose only pain can be to part. 

How wilt thou punish? For what ecstasy 
Together to be blown a,bout the globe! 

What rapture in perpetual fire to burn 
Together!—Where we are is endless fire. 

There centuries shall in a moment pass. 

And all the cycles in one hour elapse! 

Still, still together, even when faints thy sun. 

And past our souls thy stars like ashes fall, 

How wilt thou punish us who cannot part?” 

The agonized husband and brother, Giovanni, lov¬ 
ing them both passionately, recognizes that they 
have simply accomplished the inevitable, and also 
recognizes that there is no help for himself: 

“No longer I postpone or fight this doom; 

I see that it must be, and I am grown 
The accomplice and the instrument of fate, 

A blade! a knife!—no more!” 

He stabs them both together, and cries over their 
dead bodies; 

“Not easily have we three come to this— 

We three who now are dead. Unwillingly 
They loved, unwillingly I slew them. Now 
I kiss them on the forehead quietly.” 

Such is the story; such the tragedy. It is power¬ 
ful and dramatic. But the lesson it teaches, if taken 
out of poetry into life, would be one of subtle and 
terrible danger. There are too many people now 
who, instead of struggling bravely against tempta¬ 
tion, succumb, after a little, under the plea that they 
absolutely cannot help themselves—that a destiny 
not of their making compels their action—a preor¬ 
dained fate overrules and masters them. Criminals 
are generally fatalists, and seek at once to quiet 


THE OPPOSING POWER OF SIN 


57 


their own consciences and palliate their offenses 
before the world by alleging that their will was not 
free—that they were overborne by a force not them¬ 
selves. 

There are many who, if not fatalists by professed 
philosophy, still put such an exaggerated emphasis 
upon heredity and temperament, environment and 
circumstance, that, practically, they excuse defec¬ 
tion in themselves and others, and make themselves 
the puppets of an inscrutable predestination and a 
blind Power that drives them on without their choice 
or acquiescence. Against such a perilous doctrine 
it is the duty of all preachers to raise their warning. 
By such deceptive reasoning the will is paralyzed in 
advance. It will grow in strength and effectiveness 
only as it is trusted and used. The human will may 
be, indeed, comparatively weak, and temptation may 
be very strong; but a wavering will may be fortified 
by coming into union with the divine will. The forces 
of heredity and environment may seem to over¬ 
whelm man’s free agency so that he cries out in 
despair, “O wretched man that I am! who shall 
deliver me ? ’ 9 He feels that it is vain for the leopard 
to change his spots. What he is, what he does, he 
was created to be and do, and there is no help in 
him. But this is to ignore the grace and strength 
which comes from Christ—the help which prayer 
will bring. He who is most beset by temptation, 
and in whose blood may flow the fiery passions and 
the sinful lusts of many generations of ancestors, 
can still rejoice that he is more than conqueror 
through our Lord Jesus Christ; that when he is 
weak, then is he strong; that he has overcome the 
world through the blood of the Lamb; that he can 


58 DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 

thank God that deliverance has come by Him who is 
mighty to save and who can save to the uttermost. 

Mr. Phillips, in another remarkable poem, “The 
Sin of David,’’ again shows two guilty lovers seek¬ 
ing to exculpate themselves in their sinfulness. The 
woman says to the man: 

“For thee alone came I into this world, 

For thee this very hair grew glorious, 

My eyes are of this color for thy sake. 

This moment is a deep inheriting. 

And as the solemn coming to a kingdom.” 

And he replies: 

“Apart, we two did wander inland; now 
Listen, the ocean of infinity! 

Life hath no more in it!” 

Here, once more have we the antagonism of a 
fatalism which clearly negatives the gospel. A 
recent reviewer of Maxim Gorky, the Russian revo¬ 
lutionist, thus summarizes some of the teachings of 
his novels : 11 Fate is compounded of the trivial; it is 
constructed of the nothings of the day. The destiny 
of each soul is present each moment, is whole and 
undivided each moment; it is the kernel of each act. 
Given such an environment and I must shake hands 
in just the fashion that I do. Occupation, avocation, 
is Fate. The petty lie I just told is Fate. The noble 
deed I just did is Fate. We never triumph over envi¬ 
ronment ; we may triumph over an environment, but 
another instantly closes in on us. The soul of the 
race creates a prison-house and the individual is 
locked in for life. ... We imagine ourselves free, 
but the soul’s activities are but limitations acting 
from the other side. . . . Time is a thing of shreds 
and patches—and we are the shreds and patches. 
Things are not made or unmade. They are. Every- 


THE OPPOSING POWER OF SIN 


59 


thing is cnt-and-dried in that noiseless workshop— 
the unconscious.” Men and women are baubles of 
destiny; they slumped in the making. 

Thomas Hardy, in “Tess of the D’Urbervilles,” 
gave the world an utterly depressing, though power¬ 
fully written book, which proceeded along the line 
of this paralyzing thought. The heroine has her 
adverse destiny decided for her throughout by the 
most trivial incidents. Her ruin is accomplished by 
force and guile, and the author tauntingly asks 
where was the special Providence that ought to have 
protected her in that hour. She is sent to the gallows 
for a murder to which she was remorselessly driven, 
and the author bitingly remarks that the “President 
of the Immortals ’ ’ had at last come to the end of all 
the miseries he could inflict on Tess. 

Against such a pessimistic, suffocating, crushing, 
hope-annihilating philosophy of despair, bondage, 
and living death, normal humanity, in its sanity, in 
the name of a freedom conscious of itself and of 
ineradicable and inevitable moral judgments other¬ 
wise impossible, lifts up its persistent and enduring 
protest. Writers and thinkers like Gorky and Hardy 
represent not the healthy, undiseased thinking of 
men at their best. They rather belong to abnormal 
types of imaginations, sick, awry, poisoned at the 
very roots. 

It is in opposition to all such miserable perver¬ 
sions of truth that Christianity proclaims its gospel 
of the human freedom and accountability of all men; 
of virtue or vice as the result of unforced choice; 
of reward and punishment—heaven or hell—within 
the unfated determination of everyone; of the valid¬ 
ity of the testimony of conscience as to innocence 


60 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


or guilt; of happiness or misery, the result of uncon¬ 
strained acts; of the efficacy of repentance and 
pardon to reverse evil courses; of redeeming power 
in the pity and love of God and Christ, saving the 
wickedest 4 ‘unto the uttermost,’’ and proving that, 
where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. 

It is this hopefulness of Jesus—this ‘ ‘ glad tidings 
of great joy” for every man, however circum¬ 
stanced, environed, or hard bestead—which has put 
a new face on the universe. It has transformed into 
courageousness, manly effort, and expectancy of 
triumph all that “disgust and secret loathing” of 
existence, making human life a hell, which Matthew 
Arnold says “fell on that hard Roman world,” with 
all its “deep weariness and sated lust.” Let us 
praise God now and always for the optimism, the 
cheer, the glorious prophecies of ultimate victory 
which Jesus gives us. “In the world ye have tribu¬ 
lation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the 
world! ’’ Men can do all things through Christ, who 
strengthens them. More is He who is with them 
than all who can be against them. By hope they 
are saved. In all things they are more than con¬ 
querors through Him that loved them. They can be 
strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 
To them that overcome shall be given to eat of the 
tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. 

It is not very singular that some young bandits 
and murderers, captured some years ago near Chi¬ 
cago, should coarsely reiterate their ignorant creed 
of “No God for us,” and “When a man dies that’s 
the end of him.” They had made themselves like 
the brutes that perish, as far as feeling goes, and 
infinitely worse morally, and it is not to be wondered 


THE OPPOSING POWER OF SIN 


61 


at that one of them should argue in this wise: “I 
simply can’t believe in an after life. I can’t see the 
reason in it. When we ’re dead we ’re dead, just the 
same as animals. They don’t go to any heaven or 
hell, do they? Why should we?” 

And if a man has thoroughly animalized and 
bestialized himself, this is good reasoning. If there 
is to be any true persuasion of the truth of immor¬ 
tality, there must be the endeavor after it—if, by any 
means, one may “attain unto the resurrection of 
the dead. ’ ’ Eternal life is in the spirit—a conscious 
knowledge of God “and Jesus Christ whom he hath 
sent”—and immortality must be lived for; one must 
begin the immortal life here; its essence is in its 
high and holy quality and not simply in its futurity 
or its everlastingness. When one does not live for it 
he cannot believe in it. The most convincing argu¬ 
ment to any man against future existence is a bad 
life in himself. Naturally he will seek to find com¬ 
fort in the thought that death ends all, rather than 
that it brings inevitable penalties for evil deeds. 
Nevertheless, although they may talk loudly and 
assume a shocking braggadocio, there is evidence 
that criminals, despite their profession of fatalism, 
atheism, and materialism, cannot entirely dismiss 
from their minds “the dread of something after 
death ”— 

What dreams may come 
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil! 

.—which their misdeeds call up within them. 

In even the most obdurate and callous, remorse 
cannot be altogether absent. Its voice will make 
itself heard and summon sinners beforehand unto 
judgment. Instinctively there is an echo in the heart 


62 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


to the announcement that Death makes in the mo¬ 
rality play of “Everyman,” when he speaks to the 
gay young pleasure-taker: 

On thee thou must take a long journey, 

Therefore thy Book of Account with thee thou bring, 

For turn again thou canst not by no way; 

And look thou be sure of thy reckoning; 

For before God thou shalt answer and show 
Thy many bad deeds and good but a few; 

How thou didst spend thy life, and in what wise, 

Before the chief Lord of Paradise. 

Another aspect of the result of wrong living and 
criminality comes out in the answer of one of the 
youthful murderers just mentioned to the question 
whether he felt no regret for the murders he com¬ 
mitted: “I can’t feel so had about it. When people 
are dead they’re dead. When I drop it’s the end of 
me.” Here we see how all pity and the ordinary 
instincts of humanity die out in a man’s heart when 
he denies the doctrine of immortality and account¬ 
ability for sin. If he is a beast, and all other men 
are beasts, then it is little matter what is done, justly 
or unjustly, sympathetically or cruelly. Death 
wipes out the score, good or bad, and that’s the end 
of it all. 

It is said that the mother of one of these murderers 
had been working with charitable organizations for 
years, devoting much time to organizing boys ’ clubs, 
the purpose of which was to keep lads from saloons, 
and from smoking, and reading improper literature. 
The boy criminal himself said that his mother was 
“as good a Christian as ever lived,” and the sym¬ 
pathy of all fellow Christians went out to her in her 
grief. There is much to heredity, much in environ¬ 
ment and education, and, usually, the child of pious 


THE OPPOSING POWER OP SIN 


63 


parents, who has been carefully reared in a Christian 
home amid good surroundings, and who has the 
benefit of the best schools, turns out well. But such 
is the perversity of our human nature, such the 
fatal possibilities of individual choice, that even a 
boy so trained may deliberately turn to wicked ways, 
destroy himself, disgrace his home, and break the 
hearts of his parents. A good man may, as Ezekiel 
long ago observed, 4 ‘ beget a son that is a robber, a 
shedder of blood”; but “the soul that sinneth, it 
shall die,” “neither shall the father bear the iniquity 
of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall 
be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall 
be upor him.” Every man must bear his own 
burden. In a deeper sense than is usually thought, 
he is the ‘‘ architect of his own fortune. ’’ 

Again we repeat our conviction that what our age 
needs most urgently is to have the tragedy of sin 
shown it from the pulpit. The sentences of the 
gospel need to be translated into the language of 
to-day, and the persistence of hell needs to be 
enforced until apathetic consciences shall awaken 
from dormancy and look in repentance to the Christ 
who saves both from sin and the hell which sin 
creates. This word ‘ ‘ the persistence of hell, ’ 9 which 
we have used above, is the title of a sermon preached 
by that scholar and fine Christian gentleman among 
the liberals, the Rev. John White Chadwick, and 
printed where evangelical and orthodox Christians 
would scarcely expect to find it—in a Unitarian reli¬ 
gious journal. After reading his delineation of the 
consequences of evil thoughts and actions, it seems 
to us that, as regards this doctrine, the Unitarians 
and the Evangelicals are not far apart. Dr. Chad- 


64 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


wick quotes from the Unitarian Channing: 4 4 Can he 
[the gospel minister] read of that fire that is never 
quenched, of that worm which never dies, and yet 
see without emotion fellow beings with whom he 
sustains the tenderest connections, hastening for¬ 
ward to this indescribable ruin?” 

Dr. Chadwick then proceeds to show the ethical 
and spiritual results of sin in the heart—the hell 
within and the punishment within—in terms similar 
to those which are heard from our orthodox pulpits 
of to-day. He repudiates mushiness in the presenta¬ 
tion of essential facts—the overemphasis on the love 
of God and the dream of forgiveness by which the 
laws of moral retribution are obscured. The Father 
is no 4 4 Infinite Complacency. ’ ’ As there is a right 
and healthy fear of earthly parents’ displeasure, 
blame, grief, disappointment, and punishment—a 
fear profitable to the boy or girl; as there is in men 
the wholesome fear of social disesteem, the rebuke, 
by life or word, of noble friends, and the legitimate 
fear of the law with its penalties, so there may be 
a reasonable fear of God. Indeed, these earthly 
fears may be a part of the fear of the Lord which is 
the beginning of wisdom or goodness. 

Then there is the fear of the inestimable losses 
which make part of the inventory of hell’s horrors; 
4 4 the unmitigable stamp a brutish vice may brand 
upon the body or the face”; 44 that entanglement in 
which every secret wickedness involves the doer 
soon or late”; the 44 being what we hate, missing 
those beatitudes which have been pledged to us.” 
Wicked men become aware that they have miserably 
squandered life’s golden opportunity, and an accus¬ 
ing memory dims the luster of bright, immortal 


THE OPPOSING POWER OF SIN 


65 


years which might have been. They fear meeting 
those in the future whose generous expectations they 
have not fulfilled. They fear the revelation of them¬ 
selves as souls in hideous nakedness. 

And there is more than this: ‘ ‘ The hell of physical 
penalty, with its abounding misery and degradation 
and defeat/’ which 4 ‘burns for those who sin against 
the body’s temperance and purity.” “There is 
many a face which is now hateful and repellent 
which might have been beautiful and attractive but 
for some secret shame, some tolerated fault, some 
fatal tendency of thought and will, some fond 
adultery of the heart. ’ ’ Sensuous and sensual vices, 
greed, vanity, pride, all stamp their image and 
superscription upon soul and countenance alike. 
‘ ‘ Such is the unity of soul and body that it may well 
be doubted whether there is any moral aberration 
which does not register itself upon the physical man, 
not his face only, but his whole organism. Yet the 
physical penalty is but the smallest part of the pen¬ 
alty.” . . . “Besides that, there is the public shame, 
apart from any formal arraignment, the conscious¬ 
ness of pitying or averted eyes, the visible grief and 
shame of precious friends, the dread of sinking to 
some lower deep, the sense of inward banishment 
from the society of the good and true, whom still 
the weak and erring often reverence in their inmost 
hearts.” . . . “For every sensual fault there is a 
hell of correlated shame and sin. The secret fault 
escapes the social penalties that wait on discovered 
vice or crime only to plunge into a vortex of tempta¬ 
tions to new forms of guilt.” These secret faults 
are “mothers of lies, of insincerity, of dishonesty, 
of faithlessness.” 


66 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


The punishment is often indescribably awful. 
“Once let a man depart from the right way, and 
there seems to be some terrible fatality by which, at 
every turn, he is reminded of his fault. He walks 
a hall of mirrors which flash back to him his new 
misshapenness on every side. Things that are peace 
and blessedness to other men are grief and pain to 
him. ” “ The most dreadful punishment of sin is not 
anything that comes upon us from without, but to 
fall short of the high calling of our possibility, to be 
so little when we might be so much. ,, . . . “It is 
hell enough to be a brute when one might be a hero, 
to be a hinderer of social good when one might help 
so much, to destroy or depress men’s faith in God or 
man when we might exalt it so gloriously.” 

Such are some of the searching sentences we have 
culled from this noble sermon. Are we not right in 
saying that the presentment of these truths—the 
hideousness of sin and of its natural consequences— 
is too much neglected in our pulpits to-day? Would 
that all our evangelical ministers could portray as 
masterfully the penalties of the hell that sin itself 
builds as does this Unitarian! Would that the Uni¬ 
tarian preachers might proclaim as powerfully and 
persuasively as do their evangelical brothers the 
atoning grace of Christ, by which men may be saved 
from the hell of vice to the heaven of holiness! 


CHAPTER III 

Transforming Power Experienced 

Edward Everett Hale, in an address on John 
Wesley, quoted a part of that old chorus that we 
remember, in our boyhood days, being sung and 
repeated without limit in the old-time revival meet¬ 
ings: 

I’m glad salvation’s free! 

Salvation’s free, for you and me, 

I’m glad salvation’s free! 

That sentiment gave gladness to the gospel 
message from the first. That message was that the 
feast was spread, “ enough for each, enough for 
all, enough for evermore”; there was no favoritism 
with God—he was no respecter of persons; none 
were shut out or left to the cold comfort of any 
uncovenanted mercies; whosoever would might take 
the water of life freely—there were no privileged 
classes under this gospel; there was no elect “upper 
ten,” and no non-elect “lower ten thousand”; 
redemption on the same terms was offered to all men, 
high and low, respectable and disreputable; it was 
a free gift, and, consequently, not to be had by any 
purchase price of penance, any offer of a round of 
duties punctiliously performed; it was of grace, and 
not of works. 

’Tis heaven alone that is given away; 

’Tis only God may he had for the asking. 

After the long reign of a caste system in theology 
and religion, after the nightmare of “reprobation” 
67 


68 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


which had oppressed thousands, it is little wonder 
that this proclamation filled the multitudes with an 
exuberant new joy and an exultant hope. As with 
the primitive Christianity of Jesus, it became a 
social revolution as well as an evangel; for it pene¬ 
trated masses of sodden humanity with life and light 
and happiness and peace. And to those to-day—the 
“submerged tenth/’ despairing in our great cities, 
and the millions of low-caste, no-caste, or outcast 
wretches of India, and the coolies of China, and 
the fellahs of Egypt—the triumphantly sung proc¬ 
lamation, “Salvation’s free, for you and me,” will 
waken a heart under the very ribs of death. May 
the echoes of that glorious song never die out! 

Readers of Booth Tarkington’s entertaining story, 
“The Conquest of Canaan,” will recall the touching 
scene at the deathbed of a local character—a 
crotchety old “debater” by the name of Eskew Arp. 
Joe Louden, the hero of the story, had once been dis¬ 
covered by Arp acting as the “barker” for the 
shows at some distant fair grounds, and yelling con¬ 
stantly, “Positively no free seats!” The phrase 
got to be a joke between them; so that when Arp lay 
dying, he laid his hand on Joe’s and said, faintly: 
“You always—always had the—the best of that joke 
between us. Do you—you suppose they charge ad¬ 
mission—up there? Do you suppose you’ve got to 
show your good deeds to get in? I hope—I do hope 
—they’ll have some free seats. It’s a mighty poor 
show—we’ll—all have—if they—don’t!” 

And old Eskew Arp was right. * ‘ By grace have ye 
been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, 
it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man 
should glory.” And this freely bestowed grace of 


TRANSFORMING POWER EXPERIENCED 


69 


an all-merciful, all magnanimous God has been 
working its transformations from the day of Pente¬ 
cost down through the centuries and its astounding 
marvels are in evidence in our own day. 

We were greatly affected recently on reading 
again the testimony of Jerry McAuley as to the 
effect of his first acquaintance with the Bible, when 
he was shut up in his prison cell as a criminal. He 
speaks of the long dismal hours of Sunday, after the 
prisoners, coming from the morning service, had 
been marched back to their cells, and had to spend 
the rest of the day in solitude. Generally Jerry had 
contrived to have a novel on hand, but that day he 
was without one. Every prison cell was supplied 
with a Bible, but he had never touched his since he 
had laid it away long ago in the ventilator. He knew 
that there was such a book, and that people pre¬ 
tended that it was a message from God, but he had 
never cared for it, nor read a word in it. 

That Sunday he had heard the converted Orville 
Gardner, or “Awful” Gardner, as he was called, a 
man who had been his confederate in sin, make an 
impassioned appeal to the prisoners to give their 
hearts to God. Gardner had also prayed for them, 
sobbing and crying like a child. He had quoted one 
sentence, which he said was from the Bible, a sen¬ 
tence which impressed Jerry. He tells us what 
happened when he went back to his cell: “I took the 
Bible down, beat the dust from it, and opened it, but 
where to turn to find the words I wanted I knew not. 
There was nothing to do but to begin at the begin¬ 
ning and read until I came to them. On and on I 
read; how interested I grew; it seemed better than 
any novel I had ever read, and I could scarcely leave 


70 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


it to go to sleep. I got so fascinated that from that 
day it became my greatest delight. I was glad when 
I was released from work that I might get hold of my 
Bible, and night after night, when daylight was 
gone, I sat np by my grated door to read by the dim 
light which came from the corridor. I had sup¬ 
posed it to he a dry, dead thing—a book only fit for 
priests and saints—but now, whenever I could get a 
chance to communicate with my mates in the work¬ 
shop, I told them it was a splendid thing, that Bible. ’’ 

It seems to us that if others besides Jerry could 
bring some fresh interest and enthusiasm to bear 
upon the reading of the Book, they would discover, 
as did he, how absorbing and controlling is its inter¬ 
est, and how it is anything but arid and stupid liter¬ 
ature. 

Jerry’s account of his conversion is wonderfully 
graphic. He went through a terrific struggle for 
days and weeks. He says: “The struggle did not 
seem to be all mine. It seemed as if God was fight¬ 
ing the devil for me. To every thought that came 
up there came a verse of the Scriptures. I fell on 
my knees, and was so ashamed that I jumped up 
again. I fell on my knees again and cried out for 
help, and then, as ashamed as before, did I rise 
again. This conflict went on for three or four weeks. 
It was fearful. I wonder now at the long-suffering 
mercy of my God. I wonder now that the Holy 
Spirit was not grieved to depart from me forever; 
but at last the Lord sent softness and tenderness 
into my soul, and I shed many tears. Then I cried 
unto the Lord and began to read the Bible on my 
knees. I prayed and then I stopped, and prayed 
again, and stopped again, but still I continued kneel- 


TRANSFORMING POWER EXPERIENCED 


71 


ing; my knees were rooted to those cold stones of 
my cell. My eyes were closed and my hands tightly 
clasped, and I determined to stay so until morning, 
until I was called to my work; ‘ and then, ’ I said to 
myself, ‘if I get no relief, I will never, never pray 
again.’ I felt that I might die, hut did not care for 
that. All at once it seemed as if something super¬ 
natural was in my room. I was afraid to open my 
eyes. I was in an agony; the sweat rolled off my 
face in great drops. But how I longed for God’s 
mercy. Just then, in the height of my distress; it 
seemed as if a hand were laid on my head, and these 
words came to me: ‘My son, thy sins, which are 
many, are forgiven.’ I do not know if I heard a 
voice, but the words were distinctly spoken to my 
soul. 0, the precious Christ! How plainly I saw 
him lifted up on the cross for my sins! I paced up 
and down my cell. A heavenly light seemed to fill 
it, and a sweetness of perfume like the fragrance of 
sweetest flowers. I did not know if I were living or 
not. I clapped my hands and shouted, ‘Praise God! 
Praise God!’ ” 

Thus entered into the kingdom of grace and for¬ 
giveness this most wretched man: depraved, de¬ 
bauched, a prize fighter, a drunkard, a gambler, a 
highwayman, a dreaded river-thief, a companion of 
the lowest and vilest of men and women. After his 
conversion he was overcome by temptation again 
and again, hut recovered himself each time, and at 
last became strong enough to stand without falling. 
The world knows of his work for the outcasts of 
New York city in the Water Street Mission and 
Cremorne Mission, where hundreds of the wrecks of 
humanity were brought into a saved condition. At 


72 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


his funeral thousands upon thousands gathered to 
do him homage. Streets were blocked with mouners. 
If a great general or statesman had departed, there 
could not have been more genuine sorrow, or a 
larger concourse, or more eloquent tributes to his 
character and the value of his life-work. 

The Rev. Dr. S. Irenaeus Prime, speaking of the 
conversion of Jerry McAuley and many others like 
him, says: “If this work is not of God, it is nothing, 
worse than nothing. It is an awful farce. For me 
it is a divine reality. It was no fanaticism that in 
the days of the apostles led men to cry out, 4 What 
must I do to be saved V And when I have sat in the 
midst of publicans and harlots, drunkards, thieves, 
and other vile and wretched human beings, down so 
low in misery and shame that no human arm was 
long enough to reach them, or strong enough to raise 
and save them; when I have heard them in broken 
accents, amid sobs and tears, tell what the cross of 
Christ has done for them—how it has brought hus¬ 
bands and wives together in peace and comfort with 
happy children around them, after liquor and crime 
and want had broken up the household; when I have 
heard scores and scores of such testimonies, ascrib¬ 
ing all their salvation to Him who lived for them and 
died for them, lost and ruined by sin, tears have run 
down like rivers of water from my eyes, and I have 
prayed that hundreds and thousands of preachers 
of righteousness like Jerry McAuley might be taken 
from prison, to go in the name of Jesus, and seek 
and save them that are lost . 9 9 

Again and again we return to read such books to 
reassure our faith. Nothing so convinces us of the 
supernatural power of conversion; nothing shows us 


TRANSFORMING POWER EXPERIENCED 


73 


so wonderfully the power of God unto salvation as 
proclaimed in the gospel; nothing so displays the 
unfathomable love and grace and the marvelous 
transforming power of Jesus Christ as do these 
thrilling narratives, which find their direct way to 
our innermost soul. 

In common with many others, the writer once vis¬ 
ited the Water Street Mission in New York city, 
which Jerry McAuley founded, and the vivid im¬ 
pression made upon him by the testimonies heard 
there will ever abide. Each man that spoke—and 
there were many of evident culture—gave definitely 
the exact period since his conversion. “It was one 
year, six months, two weeks, and three days ago,” 
one would say, “that I found Christ.” Many testi¬ 
fied positively to the absolute destruction in them, 
through the power of grace, of the appetite for 
strong drink. Every one who spoke had been deliv¬ 
ered from a life of fearful debauchery. 

Many doubtless have read with deep emotion the 
book by Samuel H. Hadley, entitled “Down in 
Water Street.” Unless one has his heart encased in 
Portland cement, he will be strangely moved by 
this volume. Nothing in fiction can be more tragic, 
realistic, moving, than these pages torn from human 
hearts. Here, in rapid, strong outlines, are given 
the sketches of McAuley and his wife, Hadley and 
his brother, “The Old Colonel,” “Rummy,” “Old 
Pap Lloyd,” John Jaeger, the anarchist, Billy Kelly, 
“Bowery Ike,” “Old Uncle Rube,” and a score 
more. 

It is not surprising that the text “For the Son of 
man is come to seek and save that which was lost,” 
should mean much down in that mission. Hadley 


74 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


himself had been a drunkard, a gambler, a forger; 
but he became a marvelously successful worker 
among the dregs of humanity. His brother, Colonel 
Hadley, saved through his influence from a life 
wrecked by drink, was singularly successful in 
rescue missions, in Saint Bartholomew’s, in the 
Church Army, in the Christian Abstainers ’ Union. 

Besides these, there are the life records of a large 
number of miserable outcasts, transformed from 
beastliness to saintliness: women taken out of lives 
of horrible shame and unutterable vileness and re¬ 
pulsiveness—as was “Delia, the Bluebird of Mul¬ 
berry Bend”—and made into self-respecting, Chris¬ 
tian women of untold influence for good; and of men 
who were sots, bums, victims of delirium tremens, 
tramps, beggars, crooks, thieves, gamblers, blas¬ 
phemers, toughs, bunco-steerers, wife-beaters, bar¬ 
keepers, opium fiends, ex-convicts, and criminals, but 
who had been gloriously redeemed and restored to 
purity, manhood, and nobility. They would come 
to the mission sometimes for weeks, “beating their 
way,” “playing Hadley” for bed and board (which 
he well knew), “working that graft for all it was 
worth , 91 pretending to get converted regularly. But 
he bore with them lovingly, never letting them know 
he suspected them, until, at last, in very shame, their 
manhood would be touched, they would call upon 
Christ in earnest, and be soundly converted. Even 
then, when they would fall again and again, he was 
patient with them, until at last they got upon their 
feet permanently. They would come to the altar 
half drunk, incredibly dirty, clothed with nothing 
but vermin-infested rags, with no shirts—nothing 
but coat and trousers—with matted hair and beard, 


TRANSFORMING POWER EXPERIENCED 


75 


crazy for lack of sleep, hungry, and raving. But, 
like the maniac living in the tombs, whom Jesus 
instantly healed, they were soon clothed and in their 
right minds. The transformation, as shown in their 
contrasted photographs, 44 before and after,” is 
simply astonishing. Surely, if any man be in Christ 
Jesus, he is a new creation. 

They have little of the philosophy of religion 
down in Water Street, and they are not troubled with 
agnosticism or higher criticism. This is the lan¬ 
guage that you hear there: “I came in drunk, and I 
went out sober, and the best of it is I’ve been sober 
ever since. Whatever prayer it was I made that 
night I don’t remember; but the Lord heard it, and 
the best of it is, he has answered it ever since.” . . . 
‘ 1 God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” . . . “Blessed 
Jesus, these poor sinners have got themselves into 
a bad hole. Won’t you help them out? Speak to 
them, Lord, do.” . . . “Dear Saviour, I was a 
drunkard down in Cherry Street fourteen years ago, 
and you saved me. Save these poor drunkards.” 
. . . “Dear Jesus, you know you have saved me; 
now I want you to fill me so with love and yourself 
that I’ll never, never fall; never, never; you can do 
it, Jesus, if you want to, and I’ll stay here until you 
do. ”... And every night there is heard the cry of 
rejoicing: “I’ve found Jesus! 0 bless the Lord, 
I’ve found Jesus.” 

It is not wonderful that such a verse as this was 
a favorite with Mr. Hadley: 

The worst unto my supper press, 

Monsters of daring wickedness, 

Tell them my grace for all is free; 

They cannot be too bad for me; 


76 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


or that he should assert his creed in these words: 
“We believe our blessed Redeemer can beat the devil 
out of sight at his own game and on his own ground; 
nor do we think he needs any sociality or subterfuge 
to help him; only the straight, glorious gospel of 
love, compassion, and pity.” Mr. Hadley used to 
plead eloquently for the harlot and the drunkard at 
the same time that he anathematized the drink traffic 
which is working all that awful ruin. He believed 
thoroughly in the saving power of inexhaustible and 
unwearied love for men, and would despair of none. 

Many have read the powerfully written sketch by 
Norman Duncan called “The Regenerate.” It 
describes, in the victim’s own words, the descent that 
a man of intelligence and culture made, through 
drink, to absolutely the lowest depths of degrada¬ 
tion and suffering. But one night he found himself 
in a mission, listening to the testimony of men who 
had been saved from just such abject misery as he 
was in. We will let him tell the rest: 

“What they had become I could see with my own 
eyes. They were clean, they had no rags, they had 
no thirst. They were men of joy to themselves, of 
value to the world, and they had no consciousness of 
guilt; they had peace. And I—I was still a drunken 
outcast, a sinner in rags, dirty, drunk, shirtless, ill. 
But they had been what I was. They had not lied 
when they said so. There was hope, then, for me. 
You see, these men were the living evidence of that 
hope. 

“Some one asked me if I would not give God a 
chance in my life. He was a clean, strong, kindly 
man, who had been what I was and whom I knew to 
have been what I was. You know him. Did I not 


TRANSFORMING POWER EXPERIENCED 


77 


care to give God a chance to restore me? Would I 
not try it? Would I not be prayed for? Would I 
not pray for myself? I was drunk, still drunk, but 
I was resolved. I was down and out. I bad nothing 
left. And I went forward to get what these men 
bad, what my soul desired—redemption—and I did 
not care bow I got it. It was a logical determina¬ 
tion. The evidence of God’s activity in the world, of 
bis power and wish to regenerate, bad been so con¬ 
vincingly exhibited that no rational intelligence 
could endure to doubt it. And I was in a position 
to know the depths from which these men bad been 
lifted. And I knew that only the power and love 
of Almighty God could so lift them up. 

“And I got up from my knees a new man, ‘a new 
creature in Christ Jesus.’ I bad been ‘born again.’ 
It is not a cant phrase. There are no other words 
so accurately to describe the change which bad 
occurred within me, no other words to describe the 
completeness of it, the newness of the life into which 
I had come, a child in righteous ways. I was regen¬ 
erate, I had been ‘born again.’ I was sober, and 
from that moment I have never wanted alcohol. I 
have not wanted a drink. I have not wanted a drink 
since that moment. I did want a hath instantly, but 
I was too dirty to he given one without precautions. 
And I wanted a clean shirt. I loathed my rags. I 
wanted to be clean. My word, how I craved a bath! 
And pride revived at once, the good pride of man¬ 
hood. One of the brothers (we redeemed drunkards 
are all brothers) offered me five cents. I rejected it. 
I was no beggar. I was a man again, a gentleman. 
What did I want of charity? What did I want of a 
nickel I hadn’t earned? I wanted work. First of 


78 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


all, I wanted sleep. I desperately needed a bed, and 
then I wanted a bath and a job. I had my bath in 
the morning. My word, what a gracious gift it was! 
And I got my job, too, and I got my clean shirt. 

“But I lay that night in a Bowery lodging house. 
It was a heaven of rest and ease and quiet and seclu¬ 
sion after Solomon’s cellar. I was too dirty to be 
put in the long room with the decent Bowery rowdies 
and drunks. I was given a bunk in a section re¬ 
served for the very worst of us. I had fallen very 
low, you see. But I was too weak to crawl into bed; 
they must lift me in. I did not sleep. I lay awake 
all that night in tears and prayers and joyous aspira¬ 
tions. My tears were of contrition, my prayers of 
rejoicing, of gratitude; my aspiration was toward 
work and service and self-respect, and the love of all 
men. A wonderful night, a night in which those 
things I had once cherished, but had long abandoned, 
were restored to me—hope, truth, love, pure ambi¬ 
tion.” 

But it is not only in the Salvation Army barracks 
that the twice-born are found. The same work of 
blessed regeneration is to be found elsewhere. We 
take an illustration from the Methodist Times, of 
London, a description of human wrecks reclaimed in 
Central Mission (Wesleyan) of Manchester, Eng¬ 
land. 

Here is a man who was converted at thirty-two, 
and as he tells the story he exclaims repeatedly that 
it is amazing, marvelous, miraculous. He cannot 
get over the wonder of it all. He was born in a cellar 
in the lowest part of the lowest slums. His first 
impressions are of shameless immoralities. While 
yet a child he was familiar with all that is vicious 


TRANSFORMING POWER EXPERIENCED 79 

and unclean. His parents sinned hard, drank 
heavily, and quarreled frequently. They died before 
he had reached his teens, and as a lad he was flung 
upon the streets to find his living and fight his way. 
He lived in lodging houses, tramped the country, and 
managed to escape the vigilance of the police. Race 
meetings regulated his course, and for years he 
never missed a race that he could reach by fair 
means or otherwise. He gave up all pretense to 
work. He picked up his living without. A police¬ 
man, stating a case against him, described him as a 
“hardened scamp.’’ Later, drink became his sole 
interest and passion, and he scarcely ever went to 
bed sober. His parents and all his brothers died of 
drink. In a fit of delirium tremens he went to the 
canal to drown himself. As he recovered, his despair 
was terrible. One night he found himself in the 
mission. He has no idea how he got there. He had 
never heard of the place, and was “ quite out of his 
latitude.” He has not the slightest idea of what 
happened. He was very drunk, but he staggered to 
the place for the present called home with a pledge 
in his hand. It was there when he awoke next morn¬ 
ing, and he made up his mind he would try hard to 
keep it. By noon he had torn it up and begun to 
drink. That day, Mr. Alcock hunted him out and 
invited him to the services. 

Next Sunday night he went to the Free Trade 
Hall. To hide his shabby clothes he crept down the 
side to a corner. Mr. Collier preached, and this man 
says he has never preached as he did that night. He 
preached about a Saviour that could and would save 
the very worst; and the man who had been gripped 
of the Spirit says, “He looked straight at me and 


80 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


said, ‘Man, Jesus can save you.’ ” The man 
addressed “fair jumped.” He stayed to the after 
meeting, and again Mr. Alcock was at hand. In the 
inquiry room he prayed and trusted as the evangelist 
led him. It was all so strange. The effects of drink 
still clouded his mind. For weeks he had a terrible 
battle. As the “blues” wore off, the cravings for 
drink increased. Sickness seized him. His mates 
said he was dying. His wife became alarmed and 
entreated him to drink. Through it all he refused 
to budge. Mr. Collier had said Jesus would save 
him, and he would. “I may die,” he replied to their 
appeals, “but I will die sober.” Deliverance came. 
He announced that he was “under new manage¬ 
ment. ’ ’ 

As he looks back over the years what impresses 
him as the most wonderful thing about his wonderful 
conversion is what he calls its “immediateness.” 
Tendencies inborn and habits ingrained lost their 
power in a moment. More strange than the deliver¬ 
ance from drink was the change in habits of thought 
and speech. He had lived all his life among the 
vilest, and his language was of the foulest. It was 
the speech in which he had been taught to talk. He 
used it unconsciously as of second nature, but from 
the moment he rose from his knees “saved by grace” 
not one blasphemous or indelicate word has passed 
his lips. 

What shall we say to such marvelous changes in 
human character as we have recorded? Can any 
human psychology, new or old, explain them? any 
‘ ‘ action of the will under strong stress of emotion ’* ? 
No; nothing, we confidently affirm, but the miracu¬ 
lous, supernatural power exerted by Jesus Christ 


TRANSFORMING POWER EXPERIENCED 81 

can account for such revolutions and reformations 
and re-creations. No other religion, no form of eth¬ 
ical culture, can show anything like it. Saint Paul, 
in his day, knew how those who had been fornicators, 
idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, sensualists, thieves, 
covetous, drunkards, extortioners, had been washed, 
sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
and by the Spirit of God. No matter how noble, 
Christianity is no scheme of ethics simply, as some 
would have us believe to-day. It is the power of God 
unto salvation, a putting forth of spiritual, dynamic 
energy, and Christ can save to the uttermost, even 
saving poor sots and ignoramuses who call on his 
name in hope, and faith, and agony, when they know 
no theology at all, and little, if anything, of him. 

The volume known in England as “Broken Earth¬ 
enware,’ ’ and in America as “Twice Born Men,” by 
Harold Begbie, is deservedly having a very exten¬ 
sive sale. He calls it “a clinic in regeneration— 
studies in the phenomena of conversion from the 
standpoint of the student of human nature.” Mr. 
Begbie is evidently an ardent admirer of the late 
Professor William James, of Harvard University, 
to whom he dedicates this volume. Professor 
James’s book, “The Varieties of Religious Expe¬ 
rience,” seems to have furnished him the incentive 
for these social-religious investigations, and he mod¬ 
estly says that his own book is useful only as a foot¬ 
note to the better known treatise of Professor 
James’s. 

The volume is written with great skill, the nar¬ 
rative flowing with ease and charm, and never failing 
to hold the attention with its dramatic vividness and 
climaxes. The series of chapters are in the most 


82 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


realistic sense “human documents.’’ Mr. Begbie’s 
researches were carried on in one narrow portion of 
the most hopelessly degraded of London’s popula¬ 
tion, sunken to the bottom in poverty, igno¬ 
rance, degradation, vice, and crime. Among these 
wretched, loathsome, and seemingly irredeemable 
men and women the Salvation Army is carrying on 
its redemptive work. The sketches which the author 
gives us are of the transformations, effected by con¬ 
version through the Army’s instrumentality, in the 
lives of these sin-cursed miserables: life-long, sodden 
drunkards, never sober; brutal, cowardly, ferocious 
beasts, who half murder their wives and children; 
confirmed thieves, highwaymen, assaulters of police, 
jail birds having served sentence after sentence; 
prize fighters, rowdies, bullies, tramps, and loafers; 
rum-sellers, lascivious pimps and panderers, forni¬ 
cators, corrupters of youth; the lowest of the low, 
the vilest of the vile, steeped in criminality, descend¬ 
ing to every depth of privation, shame, and infamy, 
losing all self-respect and semblance of humanity; 
homeless, workless, clad in vermin-infested rags, 
stealing their food, sleeping in holes and dens—such 
are the specimens that are presented to us in this 
volume. 

It cannot be said that such books are pleasant 
reading. But there is a fearful fascination in them 
in the awful tragedies which they depict. And in the 
chronicles of instantaneous conversion—conversions 
which remain steadfast—which bring about an 
intense reaction against and disgust for the former 
life, and in the complete and revolutionary redemp¬ 
tion to righteous living of such wretches as the 
writer depicts with his pen, there must be matter of 


TRANSFORMING POWER EXPERIENCED 83 

supremest joy for every Christian heart. Case after 
ease is reported of the immediate transformation 
of most abandoned sinners—past all human help, 
it would be said—who, kneeling at the penitent form 
and crying aloud for mercy, even when in drink, 
have immediately been converted into happy, sober, 
self-respecting, virtuous, industrious, law-abiding, 
religious men, with a zeal to go out as missionaries 
for the salvation of others as low-down outcasts as 
they themselves had been. The narrative makes 
one’s heart glow with gratitude and praise for a 
Saviour who can “save to the uttermost.” The 
proofs of Christianity’s power to “make the foulest 
clean,” to bring “life and health and peace” to 
the most hardened and debased sinners, to make 
“mournful, broken hearts rejoice,” are not confined 
to Pentecost or the first century, but are here and 
now and in the midst of us. 

We have heard some preachers who objected to 
the phrase “twice-born,” insisting that every man 
when first born is born a child of God; that the divine 
life, even during a career of evil, is still present in 
the soul, though dormant; and that in conversion it 
manifests and asserts itself, but that there is no 
altogether new creation. Practically, however, it 
makes little difference in what theological light we 
may regard the manifestation of that birth “from 
above” which Jesus insisted upon to Nicodemus. 
The important thing is the fact of conversion and 
its incontrovertible validity. 

As one reads these terrible tales of degradation, 
pollution, and sufferings, it is borne in upon him 
how supremely important is the problem and duty 
of child-saving. It is a glorious mystery and an 


84 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


infinite mercy that the most contaminated and de¬ 
bauched can be saved. But the effort of the Church 
and of society and of the State ought to be to pre¬ 
vent, as far as possible, such unspeakable degrada¬ 
tion of human lives. It can be done if the work is 
begun with the children before they sink in the mire. 

It is a vastly praiseworthy devotion too, in the 
Salvation Army and every other evangelical agency, 
to be rescuing, as brands from the burning, these 
wrecks of lives in the reeking tenements. But, if 
the largest service would be rendered, the slums, 
with all their foulness, disease, and immoralities, 
must be wiped out. They are a blot on our civiliza¬ 
tion. There can be no decent living for thousands 
as long as they are permitted to survive. 

Furthermore, while we glory in the fact that even 
the most debased prodigal may be restored and made 
over by the mercy of God and the grace of Christ, 
the conviction becomes all the more intense, as we 
read these lurid portrayals, that it is better, infi¬ 
nitely better, never to have gone the prodigal’s way. 
And we have no sympathy with the characterization 
of those who all their lives have kept the even tenor 
of their ways in righteousness and the service of 
God, as experiencing only a traditional, tame, un¬ 
eventful, unexciting, conventional, or second-hand 
religion. Theirs is the best path to follow; their 
knowledge of Christ, by daily companionship 
through the years, the deepest. 

Even when converted, if susceptibility and sen¬ 
sitiveness remain, it would seem that in those 
monsters redeemed, the memories of their past 
would be an almost ineffaceable horror and a haunt¬ 
ing nightmare. How, even for the purpose of saving 


TRANSFORMING POWER EXPERIENCED 


85 


others by their story, they can bear to repeat the ter¬ 
rible narrative night after night, one can hardly 
imagine. There is a constant temptation, likewise, 
which mnst be resisted, to glory in past deeds of pre¬ 
eminent and daring wickedness, and to grow callous 
to their enormity by frequency of repetition. 

Sometimes we have thought that writers on the 
phenomena of conversion have seemed to imply that 
the “new psychology ’ 9 explained everything, and 
that there was nothing necessarily supernatural 
about the wondrous change, that “emotional states” 
rather than the power of God furnished the key to 
'the transformation. We are glad that Mr. Begbie 
forcibly contends against all such superficial inter¬ 
pretations. He says most convincingly: “Whatever 
conversion may be, whatever its physical machinery, 
it is religion, and only religion, which can put the 
machinery in motion and make a bad man a good 
man, a profitless and dangerous citizen a useful 
member of society. . . . However science may 
explain the psychological side of conversion, how¬ 
ever convincingly it may show us that religion is a 
clumsy term for describing emotional excitement, 
science itself cannot and does not save the lost and 
rescue the abandoned. Science cannot do this; it 
knows how it is done, and yet cannot itself do the 
thing which it assures us is not a miracle; and science 
does not do it, does not desire to do it, for the very 
reason that it lacks the religious impulse which alone 
can accomplish the miracle not only of converting 
people but of making conversion of the evil and the 
bad a passion of the life of the good and the vir¬ 
tuous.” 


CHAPTERIV 
The Mystery of the Power 

We do not care to bring ourselves into open con¬ 
tention with some of the professors in our colleges 
who lecture on social psychology or the psychology 
of religion. But we are convinced that much that 
they say must tend to depreciate religion in the 
minds of the students. Whenever they want strik¬ 
ing examples of abnormal suggestibility, hysteria, 
hypnotic phenomena, the magnetism of big assem¬ 
blies, the loss of individuality in the mass, the mani¬ 
festations of uncontrolled emotionalism; the insta¬ 
bility, credulity, irrationality, and non-morality of 
the crowd; mob feeling, panicky states, crazes, epi¬ 
demics, manias, crankisms, sensationalisms, frenzies, 
they are too apt to select revivals for their illustra¬ 
tions. Of course the stock quotation is the famous 
Kentucky revival of 1799-1800, when intense excite¬ 
ment prevailed among a frontier population unac¬ 
customed to reserve. As the historian tells us: ‘ ‘ The 
floor was covered with the spiritually slain. The 
heart swelled, the nerves gave way, the hands and 
feet grew cold, and motionless and speechless they 
fell to the ground. Some lay still as death. Some 
passed through frightful twitchings of face and 
limb. Some beat the floor with their heels. Some, 
shrieking in agony, bounded about. The ‘jerks’ 
began in the head and spread rapidly to the feet.” 
There was, besides, “the barking exercise” and “the 
holy laugh. ’ ’ 


86 


THE MYSTERY OF THE POWER 


87 


All this is familiar to us. We have no wish to de¬ 
fend such hysterics further than to say that it was 
not all hysterics, but that out of even such revivals 
as those, mighty moral and religious results were 
realized which were permanent, and affected for 
good the whole Middle and farther West. But such 
manifestations were a passing episode. The revivals 
of to-day are characterized by no such exaggerated 
excitements, but are orderly, rational, thoughtful, 
marked by reflection and the appeal to intelligence 
and conscience, as well as to the feelings. We con¬ 
tend that the college psychologists ought to make 
their distinctions more clearly, and ought to discrim¬ 
inate. One would think, from reading their pages, 
that all revivals were crazes incited by overstrained 
emotionalism and the mesmerism induced by the 
crowd. 

In a recent volume on psychology we caught such 
phrases as these: “Bystanding scoffers have been 
drawn into a revival maelstrom.” “A mob is a 
formation that takes time; the revivalist expects 
little response during his first half-hour.” . . . 
“Let us ask what, according to this law, will happen 
to possibly suggestible persons who submit them¬ 
selves to certain well-known revival practices? Let 
us suppose that the notion of a striking transforma¬ 
tion has been held before the subject’s mind for 
days, weeks, or even years; let us suppose that the 
subject has finally been induced to go to the penitent 
form; here, we will suppose, prayers full of sym¬ 
pathy and emotional earnestness are offered for him, 
and that everything has been so arranged as to pro¬ 
duce a climax in which he will finally believe that the 
connection between himself and God is now accom- 


88 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


plished. The leader says to him: ‘Do you now be¬ 
lieve ? Then you are saved.’ Is it not evident that 
this whole process favors the production of a pro¬ 
found emotional transformation directly through 
suggestion?” “The reaction from a purely emo¬ 
tional religious revival often leaves the cause of 
real religion worse off than it was at first. This, 
perhaps, is why experienced churches, like the 
Roman Catholic, have no use for revivals . 9 9 

These quotations are not from any irresponsible 
sources, but from two of the most distinguished psy¬ 
chologists in our country. Now, we are not calling 
in question the accuracy of the psychological in¬ 
terpretation of the “purely emotional” revival. 
Neither do we seriously object when we find “reli¬ 
gious crazes” catalogued with “waves of emotional 
feeling,” “passionate sympathetic strikes,” “polit¬ 
ical landslides,” “cholera scares,” “popular delu¬ 
sions,” “migration manias,” “booms,” “panics,” 
“agitations and insurrections,” and other examples 
of popular hysteria, for without doubt there have 
been genuine religious crazes hearing every aspect 
of fanaticism and dementia. Consequently, we do 
not indict our professors when we find them includ¬ 
ing “frenzied religious revivals” with Millerism, 
“holy-rolling,” table-tipping seances, speculations, 
war fevers, and so on. But what we do object to is 
that the legitimate and rightly conducted revival is 
left to he confused with all of this extravagance and 
rarely brought out of the background. 

We fear also that the psychology of conversion is 
stated in such cold-blooded and critical fashion as 
to make it seem something entirely and satisfac¬ 
torily explicable by the laws of suggestibility and the 


THE MYSTERY OF THE POWER 89 

mesmeric influence of a crowd worked into a highly 
emotional state. The converted man is studied 
somewhat as if he were a freak. His actions and 
language under intense feeling are labeled and tabu¬ 
lated for the psychological museum. Analyzing and 
dissecting in this laboratory fashion, the psychol¬ 
ogist would seem to discover nothing which at all 
resembled any supernatural agency. Conversion 
would seem to be an entirely natural process—or, 
rather, most unnatural—with the Holy Spirit no¬ 
where in evidence. A recent university professor in 
Chicago is reported as saying in a lecture on 4 ‘ The 
Development of Personal Beligious Experience”: 
1 1 In no respect is there greater agreement among the 
psychologists of religion than that the methods of 
revivals are essentially methods of hypnotism. The 
fixing of attention, the manipulation of the subjects 
through a series of suggestions, the final mandatory 
exhortation to surrender and to indicate it by a 
simple motor response—all these are familiar meth¬ 
ods of hypnotism.” 

The psychologist can study the phenomena lead¬ 
ing up to conversion and the subsequent phenomena 
after conversion. These he may explain, perhaps 
quite clearly, under well-understood laws. But when 
he comes to consider the central fact of conversion 
itself, it seems to us that he meets a mystery that 
baffles all human explanation. It is perhaps difficult 
to separate the human and divine element in revivals 
and conversions. It may well be that the super¬ 
natural works in and through the natural, but cer¬ 
tainly the supernatural cannot be eliminated in toto, 
and any consistent Christian theology be retained. 
One author speaks of “the revival meeting, where 


90 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


religious excitement is in the air, and a premium is 
put on feverish feeling.’’ “The spirit of the crowd 
dominates the individual, the powerful influence of 
unconscious imitation gets control of him, and he 
yields his old will and his old ideas to a mysterious 
social force which compels obedience.” But the 
writer is fair enough to add: “To say this, however, 
is by no means necessarily to condemn revivals. 
Whether or not it is desirable that the spirit of the 
crowd should dominate the spirit of the individual 
will depend on the nature of the two spirits. . . . 
Revivals often work for righteousness and result 
in unmistakable and lasting good.’ 9 

Some instances may justify this author in saying, 
‘ * Many a man is led by the excitement of the ‘ inquiry 
room’ and the ‘mourners’ bench’ to say and do things 
of which he was afterward ashamed; and when the 
intense feeling state of the revival meeting burns 
itself out he not merely ‘backslides’ but becomes 
hardened, suspicious, cynical toward all religion, 
and the last state of that man is worse than the 
first. ’ ’ But it would be a great mistake to generalize 
too broadly from such unfortunate instances. 

Likewise, we think that this professor in a lead¬ 
ing Christian college is erring on the side of too 
great conservatism and caution when he writes: 
“Just because of its marvelous power when once 
started in motion, a revival is a most dangerous 
engine, and is so easily and so frequently misused 
and turned from the safe track that one should hesi¬ 
tate long before trying to ‘get one up.’ If at times 
it is powerful for good, it is often equally powerful 
for evil; and one can never be sure that, once started, 
it will not rouse the lion and the hydra in man, and 


THE MYSTERY OF THE POWER 91 

drag religion down into something approaching a 
wild orgy of frenzied savages.’ * 

Let us, indeed, beware of wildfire, but let us not 
fear to use every rightful means of promoting sane 
and spiritual revivals. 

Dr. Wilfred Grenfell, the famous Labrador mis¬ 
sionary, once thus spoke before Harvard students: 

“I think the trouble with many of us is that we 
think that by much learning we shall find out God! 
We think that we shall get sure of the premises on 
which to base our relationship to Jesus Christ by 
the study of books and the hearing of lectures! 
Christ said, ‘If you are willing to do, you shall 
know. ’ His Spirit will still animate our hearts and 
lives and dwell within us if we are willing. To me it 
is a question of whether we are willing to follow the 
Christ, whether we are willing to pay the price of 
following the Christ or not. 

“But I say Christ does do for men to-day what 
he promised to do, and what these accounts tell us he 
did do. He took then a fisherman who was ignorant 
and unlearned, who lied before a handmaid and 
ran away from a handful of soldiers, and made that 
man into the Peter that the world has ever since 
honored. And he does it again now. If, as a sur¬ 
geon, I stood before you to-day and advocated a 
remedy that nineteen hundred years ago made great 
cures, and you were to say, ‘Well, I don’t see that 
it ever does it now,’ and I were not able to point to 
any such results now, I should appear to be either 
a knave or a fool. What sane man would spend his 
time in advocating that which had not for centuries 
fulfilled its promises in the benefits it claimed to be 
able to perform? 


92 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


“All I can reiterate as I stand here is that I am 
sure that to make our lives worth while we must be 
filled with faith: that I have seen myself over and 
over again; just as I have seen the temperature fall 
and life restored as some course of treatment bene¬ 
fits a dying man, so have I seen the cruel man made 
kind and the drunken man made sober, and the 
impure man made pure, and the feeble man made 
strong, and the coward made brave. By union with 
Christ I have seen men making these tiny homes in 
Whitechapel and on the Labrador coast that were 
little better than hells on earth into places where 
God’s love dwelled, where men gave as well as took, 
where poverty did not make the world look half so 
blue as riches often do, where tender and fearful 
people were enabled to meet crises in life, before 
which to-day many of us would fail. I have seen this 
faith make men strong and women tender, giving 
them in these prosaic days the power to be true and 
self-forgetful, just as in that long list recorded in 
Hebrews men were made pure and powerful and 
unselfish and successful by faith.’ ’ 

So many in our churches have come to Christ in 
easy ways, without the struggle which poor wretches 
of the slums and in other lowly walks of life have 
known, that they are either ignorant or skeptical 
about this wondrous power of Jesus’s name. It 
would do us all good to join with the Water Street 
converts in singing: 

“O, it is wonderful, 

Strange and so wonderful, 

Jesus could save even me!” 

In a conversation with a noted superintendent of 
city missions he told us of an experience while he 


THE MYSTERY OP THE POWER 


93 


was at the head of city missions in Cincinnati. The 
gospel wagon was out with its preachers and singers, 
and, after the exhortation, in one of the worst sec¬ 
tions of the city, the invitation to come to Christ for 
salvation was given. One man who, just before, had 
been shot out of a most disreputable dive, drunk, 
demoralized, unutterably degraded, was attracted by 
the singing and the crowd. He followed the evangel¬ 
ists to a service in a nearby Methodist church, 
where, after a long struggle and much prayer, he 
was gloriously converted. Then he wanted the 
preacher, a deaconess, and some of the accompany¬ 
ing friends to go with him to his home. His home 
was a wretched, dirty, dilapidated room or two in a 
squalid tenement. The man had been notorious for 
his terrible brutality toward his wife and children, 
beating them unmercifully when in his drunken 
orgies. When he pushed the door open, revealing 
an apartment utterly bare of all comforts, and 
even necessities—carpets, chairs, tables, all lacking 
—there was a hurried flight within, and the terror- 
stricken wife and children were seen huddled and 
cowering in a further doorway. The husband, now 
thoroughly sobered, called to her: “Mary, don’t run 
away from me; I won’t hurt you, Mary—never, any 
more! Come to me, Mary. I’ma changed man. I’m 
converted, Mary. I ain’t going to drink any more. 
I ain’t goin’ to be bad to you any more. I’m a con¬ 
verted man, Mary! ’ ’ 

At first his wife looked at him suspiciously; then 
she glanced at the minister, the deaconess, and the 
friends; then gradually she gathered confidence, 
and, slowly approaching him, gazed steadfastly into 
his eyes, placed her hands on his shoulders, put her 


94 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


arms about bis neck, kissed him, and wept. Every¬ 
body wept with her. 

The man kept his pledge. His whole life was 
altered. He set up his little saddler’s shop. He 
moved out of the foul tenement, away from the 
wretched city block into a country village, where he 
lived a cleanly and reputable life. 

We are hearing, as we have said in the previous 
chapter, much in these days about the “psychology 
of conversion,” but can any psychology whatever 
adequately explain such transformations as these? 
It is vain to tell us about the magnetism of a crowd, 
about the laws of “ auto-suggestion, ” and all that. 
Books like James’s “Varieties of Religious Experi¬ 
ence” and the volumes of Starbuck and Coe are 
very interesting, but they deal only with the external 
phenomena of conversion and not with its under¬ 
lying causation. 

And if, in regard to this new birth, this birth anew 
or “from above,” we ask with Nicodemus, “How 
can these things be?” the only answer that can be 
given is that it is one with the great mysteries of 
the universe, similar in operation to vast cosmic 
forces whose action and effect we can see, but the 
inner source and secret of whose dynamic energy 
we cannot fathom, since we are irresistibly led back 
and back through all intermediate processes to God 
himself, the Fountain Head and Reservoir of all 
power in the universe and in the soul of man. 

It is true that this power often works without 
demonstration, like a seed growing in the dark, or 
like the permeating leaven, as well as in the start¬ 
ling, cyclonic changes such as shake a man’s being 
to the center and make him over as by an earth- 


THE MYSTERY OP THE POWER 96 

quake shock. It operates normally in the lives of 
little children and of adolescents, and, as Dr. Terry 
has suggested, presumably in the prenatal period 
also—a constant, silent, gracious force of inspiration 
and sanctification. It is through such action of this 
good and loving Power, able and willing to help us 
and all creatures, and to guide us wisely, without 
detriment to our freedom; this Loving Kindness 
which continually surrounds us, in which we live and 
have our real being, and which is the mainspring of 
life and joy and beauty, that we have come into the 
blessed experience of this infinite grace of God which 
sustains and enriches all worlds. 

But it is well for us sometimes to see how this 
grace manifests itself in the sudden, cataclysmic 
changing of a life thoroughly depraved and actively 
sinful into a life of purity and religious consecra¬ 
tion. The cries, struggles, tragic doubts and fears, 
and the overpowering and ecstatic emotions of such 
natures are all strange to many of us. The elder 
brother of the prodigal could not put himself in 
the prodigal’s place. At a certain midweek prayer 
service which we regularly attended, the chaplain 
of the Seaman’s Bethel frequently brought up with 
him to the meeting a dozen or more brawny sailors 
from the lake boats. The testimonies of these men, 
rescued generally from lives of drunkenness and 
vice—moving testimonies, given with pathos and 
manly vigor and positiveness and exultation over 
what the Lord had done for their souls—would 
electrify all from their respectable dullness into life 
and feeling and rejoicing. 

This is the old-time gospel which, in any revival 
season and the whole year round, must be preached. 


96 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


No new legislation that the nation or States or cities 
can originate and pass will cure the desperate 
malady of sin. Our faith stands not in the wisdom 
of men but in the power of God. That power can 
take a man like Paul—“ sometime foolish, disobe¬ 
dient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, 
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating”—a 
blasphemer, persecutor, injurious, and renovate him 
through and through into sainthood. It is the boast 
of science that it ignores no fact in the universe, and 
here is one of the greatest facts in the history of 
mankind that cannot be overlooked or treated slight¬ 
ingly. This is the fact of a new creation, the new 
man which after God is created in righteousness and 
true holiness. Manifestly the blood of Jesus Christ 
cleanses from all sin. This Power, effecting new 
dispositions in men, shows the “greater works” of 
which Jesus spoke; for, more than healing physical 
disease, more than raising the dead is this birth ‘‘ of 
the spirit, ’’ this divine act of procreation, this unique 
efficiency in Christ, this miracle of miracles which 
overcomes habit and reconstructs existence, and 
which is the consolation of all the sinful, the inspira¬ 
tion of the Church, the hope of a world lying in 
wickedness. 

The Rev. Dr. W. E. Hatcher has told us in a very 
graphic way the story of the conversion of John 
Jasper, the noted Negro preacher and philosopher 
of Richmond, Virginia. Jasper’s life was that of 
a consistent, deeply devout Christian, and his influ¬ 
ence with the people of his race was unbounded. 
The narrative gives the account of his conversion 
while yet a slave in Jasper’s own words: 

“I was seekin’ God six long weeks, jes’ ’cause I 


THE MYSTERY OP THE POWER 


97 


was sich a fool I couldn’t see de way. De Lord 
struck me fus’ on Cap’tal Squar’, an’ I left thar 
badly crippled. One July mornin’ somethin’ hap¬ 
pen’d. I was a tobarker-stemmer—dat is, I took de 
tobarker leaf, an’ tor’d de stem out, an’ dey won’t 
no one in dat fac’ry could beat me at dat work. But 
dat mornin’ de stems wouldn’t come out to save me, 
an’ I tor’d up tobarker by de poun’ an’ flung it under 
de table. Fac’ is, bruhr’n, de darkness of death was 
in my soul dat mornin’. My sins was piled on me 
like mount’ns. My feet was sinkin’ down to de 
rejuns of despair, an’ I felt dat of all sinners I was 
de wust. I tho’t dat I would die right den, an’ wid 
what I s’posed was my lars bref, I flung up to heav’n 
a cry for mercy. ’Fore I know’d it, de light broke; I 
was light as a feather; my feet was on de mount’n; 
salvation rol’d like a flood through my soul, an’ I 
felt as if I could knock otf de fac’ry roof wid my 
shouts. But I sez to myse’f I guine to hoi’ still tell 
dinner, an’ so I cried, an’ latfed, an’ tore tobarker. 
Presently I looked up de table, an’ dar was an ol’ 
man—he lub me, an’ tried hard to lead me out de 
darkness, an’ I slip roun’ to whar he was, an’ I sez 
in his ear as low as I could, ‘Hallelujah; my soul’s 
been redeemed! ’ ” 

Then he tells us how he had to raise his first 
“shout to de glory” of his Redeemer, how “de fust 
tastes of salvation got de better of ” him and brought 
the overseer in anger to quiet him. But he goes on: 

“Mars’ Sam was a good man; he was a Baptes’ 
an’ one of de head men of de old Fus’ Church down 
here, an’ I was glad when I hear Mars’ Sam say he 
want to see me. When I get in his orfes, he say: 
‘John, what was de matter out dar jes’ now?’ an’ 


98 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


his voice was sof ’ like, an’ it seemed to have a little 
song in it which played into my soul like an angel’s 
harp. I sez to him: ‘ Mars ’ Sam, ever since de fo ’rth 
of July I ben cryin’ af’er de Lord—six long weeks— 
an’ jes’ now, out dar at de table, God tuk my sins 
away, an’ set my feet on a rock. I didn’t mean to 
make no noise, Mars’ Sam, but ’fore I know’d it, 
de fires broke out in my soul, an’ I jes’ let go one 
shout to de glory of my Saviour. ’ 

“Mars’ Sam was sittin’ wid his eyes a little down 
to de flo’, an’ wid a pritty quiver in his voice, he 
says, very slow: ‘ John, I b’leve dat way myse’f. I 
lub de Saviour dat you’ve jes’ found, an’ I wan’ 
to tell you dat I do’n complain ’cause you made de 
noise jes’ now as you did.’ 

“Den Mars’ Sam did er thing dat nearly made me 
drop to de flo’. He got out of his chair, an’ walk 
over to me an’ give me his han’, an’ he say: ‘ John, 
I wish you mighty well. Your Saviour is mine, an’ 
we ’re bruthers in de Lord. ’ When he say dat, I turn 
’round an’ put my arm agin de wall, an’ held my 
mouf to keep from shoutin’. 

“ ‘John,’ says Mars’ Sam, ‘you needn’t work no 
mo’ to-day. I give you holiday. Aft’r you get 
through tellin’ it here at de fac’ry, go up to de house 
an’ tell your folks; go roun’ to your neighbors an’ 
tell them; go anywhere you wan’ to, an’ tell de good 
news. ’ 

“Farewell, my old mars ter; when I lan’ in de 
heav’ly city I’ll call at your mansion dat de Lord 
had ready for you when you got dar, an’ I’ll say: 
‘Mars’ Sam, I done what you tol’ me, an’ many of 
’em is cornin’ up here wid da’ robes washed in de 
blood of de Lam’.’ ” 


THE MYSTERY OF THE POWER 


99 


Mr. Frank T. Bullen has given ns a remarkable 
book entitled ‘ 4 With Christ at Sea”—an auto¬ 
biographical narrative of the personal experience 
of the author in trying to lead a Christian life on a 
large number of ships and among the common sail¬ 
ors. Being converted himself, he labors for others, 
and here is the prayer for one of his shipmates: 
4 ‘Dear Father, here’s poor Willie Ballantyne 
brought face to face with you at last. You’ve done 
it yourself, and no one but himself can prevent him 
from being set free. I needn’t ask you to save him, 
you’ve done all that; but I do ask you to make him 
see that it is so. Loving Lord, you’ve been pleading 
with him for a long time; make him give up strug¬ 
gling against you; make him as happy as you make 
everybody who gives himself right up to you. And 
we’ll bless you and praise you with all our hearts, 
with all the new words and powers you’ve given us. 
Amen. ’ ’ 

His account of what followed we give in his own 
words: “I had no sooner finished speaking than 
Ballantyne broke in: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, I ken 
you’ve sauvit me. I canna feel’t; ma heid’s all dizzy 
like; but I’m believin’ wut ye’ve said about nut 
ca’asting oot ony puir wretch ’at comes t’ye. 
A’am’s bad’s can be, a drucken, swearin’, feckless 
loun; there is na ony thing tae be said fur ma ’at’s 
guid. But ah ken fine’ ’at ye love me, fur all ahm 
sae bad. Here ah aam, tak ma, an’ make something 
oot o’ ma, fur ah’ve made an awfu’ mess o’ mysel’. 
Amen.’ ” 

The author then tells what happened next: ‘ ‘ Then, 
springing to his feet, he kissed me, while I hardly 
knew whether I was in the body or out of it. All I 


100 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


knew and realized most profoundly was that He who 
came to do the will of his Father was doing it now, 
and no one else had any hand in the wonderful work 
at all.’ ’ 

Again, another of his mates, a gigantic Nor¬ 
wegian, who had been a drunken, swearing, brutal 
terror, is converted. We have seen like cases in the 
sailors of Seamen’s Bethels, and know it can be 
done. Jem, in praying, subsequently, for another, 
said: ‘ 4 Dear Fader Gott, you know I haf been so bat, 
zo fery bat. I haf been blag lige pitch. I tink bat, 
speak bat, do bat, all day, efery day. Unt den you 
make me know you lofe me; you make me see mine- 
selluf yoost as I vas, but I benn afrait. But now I 
know, Glory to Gott! I know the blag sin is gone; I 
am all nice unt vite inside, unt I don’t afrait any 
more.” 

Afterward Jem spoke in a public religious meeting 
in this style, and a more forcible, pointed, and 
effective style has never been employed by any 
doctor of divinity: 

“Dear Vrients: You hav ask me to tell you vat de 
Lort haf done for me. How can I dis do? Yen I 
tink of his gootness unt lofe, I hav not vorts efen 
in mine own langridge to speak of it; how den can 
I tell you in Engelisch, vich I only talk like any oder 
sailor-man? But yet I not can say no. I vas a teufel 
—I dink vorse, because de teufels dey haf no hope, 
und I haf shut my soul up from hope myselluf. If 
dere is anything bad I can do, I haf do it. I haf 
hate de dear Yater Gott, I haf hate all his peoples. 
O, is dere anyting bad I haf not do? I vill say not 
any more aboud my sins, pecause I haf much shame 
for dem, unt yet I feel dat if I talk ’bout dem, I vill 


THE MYSTERY OF THE POWER 


101 


tink mooch of myselluf pecause I haf been so bad. 
Unt more, I vas so misbul. I nefer haf no peace, I 
nefer haf no res’, I nefer haf no pleasure, ’cept I 
ked tronk unt fight, unt dat cos’ all de money I vork 
so hardt for. Den I come to Port Chalmers unt I go 
into de meeting unt I hear a man say dat de Lordt 
Jesus Christ is come to tell man vat Gott is; dat 
Gott ton’d hate me, an’ not vant me to die unt go 
to hell; dat hell ain’d vatin’ for me, but Gott vaits 
alvus, unt dat he ben sorry dat I vas not happy. He 
tell me dat der is only von man can send me to hell, 
unt dat is me myselluf, unt dat if I come unt ket into 
his hants der ain’t no von—no, not efen de Sattan 
himselluf dat can pull me ’vay agen. 

“Unt vile I lissen unt hear effery vort, beliefing 
id’s all true—'’pout some pody elles—I hear a vort 
in here [striking his breast] dellin’ me, ‘Yes, Yem, 
you ben de man all dis for.’ Unt I don’t vait anoder 
minit. I belief id. I say: ‘Yes, Lord Yesus, I ben 
de man you die fur. Unt now I ben coin’ to gif 
myselluf all oop fur you.’ Unt, if any man say to 
me any more, ‘How do you know all dis?’ I say to 
him, ‘How I know? Vat you tink id is keep me frum 
svearin’, frum bein’ bucko, frum keddin’ tronk, 
frum hatin’ myselluf unt eferypody ellas? You 
ton’t know? Yell, I do. Id ben de Lort Gott 
Almighty. Nopotty ellas can do it.’ Unt now I vas 
yoost like a leedle shild. I haf lose de taste for de 
bad, unt find it for de goot, t’ank Gott. Unt if I, dot 
vas so bad, unt ton’t know anyting ’t all, get holt of 
dis goot ting, who in de vorlt coin’ to be left oud? 
Gott bless eferypody, for Yesus Christ’s sake, 
Amen.” 

The author’s own comment is the best that can 


102 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


be made: “The broken, halting words ceased, but 
their effect npon the audience was marvelously 
manifested. Talk about the effects of oratory, the 
power, with magic words allied to the music of the 
human voice, to sway multitudes of people as the 
wind sways the corn. Wonderful the gift! But 
here was a man hardly able to speak the language 
of his hearers, ignorant of all elocutionary rules, 
of any tricks of rhetoric, who had so gripped the 
hearts of his audience that they wept, almost 
writhed, under the fierce stress of their emotions, 
and as he descended from the platform the meeting 
broke up, for all present wanted to press his hand. 
And I, who dread intensely all forms of spasmodic 
emotional religion, mere play of feeling influenced 
by externals and evanescent as the ripple upon 
water when the wind dies away, was so profoundly 
moved that I was glad to get away into a corner and 
simmer down.” 

After a period of long strain, and feeling the 
need of some mental relaxation, we took up one day 
Charles Reade’s story of “Peg Woffington.” In 
the concluding pages of the book the author narrates 
how this fascinating and celebrated actress of the 
eighteenth century, who had entertained London for 
years by her beauty, versatility, and dramatic 
genius, turned at once from her profession and a 
life of waywardness wherein she had known sin and 
transgression. She was in Dublin and went into a 
small chapel. She had lived in a “day of sapless 
theology, ere John Wesley waked the snoring 
Church.” But in this plain little building she came 
on something of a different kind which the novelist 
thus describes: “Instead of sending a dry clatter of 


THE MYSTERY OF THE POWER 103 

morality about their ears, or evaporating the Bible 
in the thin generalities of the pulpit, this man drove 
God’s truths home to the hearts of men and women. 
In his hands the divine virtues were thunderbolts, 
not swan’s down. With good sense, plain speaking, 
and a heart yearning for the souls of his brethren 
and his sisters, he stormed the bosoms of many; and 
this afternoon, as he reasoned like Paul of right¬ 
eousness, temperance, and judgment to come, sinners 
trembled—and Margaret Woffington was of those 
who trembled.” 

Very beautiful, too, it seems to us, is the narrative 
of her progress in the divine life: “After this day 
she came ever to the narrow street where shone this 
house of God; and still new light burst upon her 
heart and conscience. Here she learned why she was 
unhappy; here she learned how alone she could be 
happy; here she learned to know herself; and, the 
moment she knew herself, she abhorred herself and 
repented in dust and ashes. This strong and 
straightforward character made no attempt to recon¬ 
cile two things that an average Christian would 
have continued to reconcile. Her interest fell in a 
moment before her new sense of right. She flung 
her profession from her like a poisoned weed.” 

The novelist quotes her letter to a young female 
friend, contemplating the profession of an actress. 
This is what she wrote to the girl: “At the bottom 
of my heart I always loved and honored virtue. Yet 
the tendencies of the stage so completely overcame 
my good sentiments that I was for years a worthless 
woman. It is a situation of uncommon and incessant 
temptation. Ask yourself, my child, whether there 
is nothing else you can do but this. It is, I think, 


104 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


our duty and our wisdom to fly temptation when¬ 
ever we can, as it is to resist it when we cannot 
escape it.” 

The converted actress gave herself up to works of 
piety and love. Her life was cut short by disease. 
But “she lived long enough to read a firm recanta¬ 
tion of her former self, to show to the world a great 
repentance, and to leave upon indelible record one 
more proof of what alone is true wisdom, and 
where alone true joys are to be found.” 

We do not remember reading anything like this 
in any of our present-day fiction. Most of the 
writers, except those who are professedly religious, 
either ignore religion completely or seem to be 
ashamed of mentioning it. For this reason we have 
quoted at such length this passage from Charles 
Reade, and must give one more extract, which de¬ 
picts the change from a stormy, passionate career 
to one wherein “she had the peace of God which 
passes all understanding.” Here is the beautiful 
pen picture: “Reader, it was with her as it is with 
many an aututan day: clouds darken the sun, rain 
and wind sweep over all until day declines. But 
then comes one heavenly hour when all things seem 
spent. There is no more wind, no more rain. The 
great sun comes forth—not fiery bright, indeed, but 
full of tranquil glory—and warms the sky with ruby 
waves, and the hearts of men with hope, as, parting 
with us for a little space, he glides slowly and peace¬ 
fully to rest. So fared it with this humble, penitent, 
and now happy Christian. . . . When the great 
summons came it found her full of hope and peace 
and joy; sojourning, not dwelling upon earth; far 
from dust and din and vice; the Bible in her hand, 


THE MYSTERY OF THE POWER 105 

the cross in her heart; quiet, amid grass and flowers 
and charitable deeds.” 

We could go on and multiply such instances of 
transformation from every station in life. It must 
not be supposed that we do not prefer the regular, 
orderly development from childhood up of a reli¬ 
gious life to the experience of the prodigal and his 
dramatic return. But that experience is a reality 
and something to he reckoned with. The conversion 
of such is a problem for philosophy. Personally we 
have never read any adequate explanation of it on 
any purely naturalistic grounds. Emotionalism is 
only one of its accessories and not its essence. In 
many cases emotion would seem to have been almost 
absent, the great change being effected while the 
mind was in a stolid state through drink. It is not 
sufficient to remark on the many who fall away. To 
lapse into vice is the dreadful possibility of any man, 
however virtuous. The old fatalistic dogma of 
‘‘once in grace, always in grace” has been aban¬ 
doned. If men of reputation and helpful surround¬ 
ings go downward, can we wonder that these brands 
plucked from the burning, with heritage and environ¬ 
ment against them, should sometimes or frequently 
relapse? But no consideration of these lapses is an 
answer to the mystery involved in the cases of those 
who do stand in virtue and true holiness through all 
their after lives. How shall we explain their trans¬ 
formations? We confess ourselves unable to offer 
any explanation which does not involve the im¬ 
mediate, direct, new-creating power of God in Christ. 
If philosophy and psychology find no mystery, and 
are able to offer a complete analysis, how is it that 
psychology and philosophy by themselves have never 


106 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


been able to effect any results so humane and grand, 
results that in every way of thinking must be most 
thankfully received and rejoiced over fervently? 
Why is it that these results seem to be confined to 
the Christian religion and to the evangelical forms 
of that religion? 

As one contemplates this marvelous, miraculous, 
regenerating, and transforming power of Christ and 
of his gospel, what shall be his answer as to how the 
preacher should proclaim it? Surely there can be 
but one reply—not with listlessness and philosoph¬ 
ical reserve and coldness, but with all the flaming 
earnestness and glowing conviction of a soul on fire 
with love for the Saviour and with intense solici¬ 
tude for the unsaved. There is a distinct demand at 
present for more real passion in the pulpit. The 
Methodist Recorder, of London, discourses upon 
what it regards as a serious defect in the preaching 
of our times—the lack of the power of a profound 
passionateness in our modern preaching. We are 
convinced that the deficiency is not something which 
is confined to the British Isles. It is also discover¬ 
able on this side of the water, and we believe that it 
has impressed itself upon many careful observers 
of our present-day tendencies. 

The writer in the Recorder expressed himself so 
intelligibly and to the point that we cannot do 
better than to transfer bodily some of his trenchant 
paragraphs. He writes: 

“If I am not greatly mistaken we are losing 
the note of passion that commonly characterized 
preachers half a century ago and later; and there is 
no change more intimately and vitally bound up with 
those defects and maladies of church life which we 


THE MYSTERY OF THE POWER 


107 


are to-day with one voice deploring. 1 The ministry 
of to-day is largely a passionless ministry’ is a 
minister’s confession, made in the light of long expe¬ 
rience, of wide observation and of clear judgment; 
and his testimony is the testimony of many others. 
We have shared in the educational advancement of 
our time, one of the effects of which is, for the pres¬ 
ent, to exalt the intellect, disparaging meantime the 
offices of the heart and the emotions in the sphere 
of religion. Under this restraint the preacher too 
often confuses the nature of a sermon with that of a 
lecture, and is more wishful to speak with the bal¬ 
anced and cautious judgment of the student than 
with the authority of a personal witness, or the 
passion of a prophet. The making of a sermon is 
under these conditions an exercise of the mind, and 
when it is delivered it is judged as the product of 
a mental effort, the achievement of the human mind, 
rather than as a message from God mediated through 
the glowing conviction and personal experience of a 
living soul. Behind the message there is, to the 
average hearer, an active mind rather than a living 
man. 

‘ 4 So far has this influence carried us that, in many 
circles, to display feeling from the pulpit would he 
considered as an offense against good form, and to 
be known as an ‘emotional preacher’ would, in 
most places, injure a man’s reputation. There is 
something to be said, however, for the severity of 
this judgment. It happens sometimes that the acci¬ 
dents of passion are offered for its essence, the gar¬ 
ments instead of the soul; genuine feeling is in other 
cases associated with such mannerisms of voice and 
gesture as naturally offend the hearer, while in 


108 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


others, again, it has been noticed that the depth of 
a preacher’s feeling was in proportion to the 
shallowness of his thought. All these things have 
tended to raise prejudice against the man who dis¬ 
plays feeling in the pulpit, and the emotional 
preacher has less than a good name in the churches. 
But passion is not a thing of the voice nor of bodily 
gesture, it is of the heart; for its expression it 
depends, not on a certain volume of sound, nor a 
rush of words; it can, to be sure, thunder with the 
sound of many waters; but it can also whisper with 
the still small voice; and whatever its vehicle, where 
it is real it is never mistaken or misjudged. 

“The absence of passion in the preacher is evi¬ 
dence both of mental error and of serious moral fail¬ 
ure ; of mental error, since the preacher who is con¬ 
tent to expound texts, or to piece together for his 
hearers the fragments of his own knowledge cannot 
have rightly conceived his office. To expound the 
Bible is not the end of our vocation, but only the 
method of our work. We are not sent to expound 
problems nor to construe history, but to save souls, 
to form character, to build the temple of God in the 
hearts of his redeemed people; and everything else, 
the handling of all problems, the expounding of all 
truth, must serve this end.” 

Let us hear, for a moment, testimony on the other 
side, from another quarter. A writer in the Ameri¬ 
can Israelite, touching on this question of emotion in 
religion and passion in preaching, says: “The Jew 
could never see the good of revival or evangelistic 
meetings. He does not believe much in an emotional 
religion. He believes that the emotions play a part, 
and a prominent part, in religion, but he deprecates 


THE MYSTERY OF THE POWER 109 

giving the emotions full sway in religion. He feels 
that emotionalism will ultimately lose itself in 
hysteria and maniacal fanaticism. The emotions 
must be held in check by the intellect and the reason, 
if we are to get good and lasting results.’’ 

While there is truth in what is above said as to the 
balance necessary to be preserved between the feel¬ 
ings and the intellect, we sincerely believe that the 
pendulum is swinging over too far toward a some¬ 
what frigid and altogether too unimpassioned style 
of pulpit address. What may be ideal for modern 
Judaism, with its rationalism, ought scarcely to be 
suitable for an earnest, evangelistic Christianity. 
It would be far better for our preachers, if they have 
any genuine feelings, and are not intellectual ice¬ 
bergs, to give those feelings a chance once in a while, 
to vent themselves. We have never been able to see 
why it is that the feelings, with which the good 
Father has endowed his children as a supreme gift 
from himself, should be so frequently regarded as 
something almost disreputable—to be ashamed of 
and to be somewhat sedulously and severely 
repressed. The emotional nature has its rights quite 
as much as the intellectual. To crowd the emotions 
into the hold, and to nail the hatches down over 
them, is neither necessary nor warranted. 

If our ministers do not possess any particular 
feelings which are in good working order, it will pay 
many of them to cultivate this part of their natures, 
and not be so dreadfully formal, precise, and dis¬ 
mally cold. If they actually do have some decent 
equipment of feelings, and yet are all the time sitting 
down hard on them, it would be well for them once 
in a while to relieve the pressure and let the fire fly. 


110 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


Nothing terrible will happen; and even the stolidest 
hearer will feel an unwonted and gratifying warmth 
in the region of his marble heart. 

Of course, we do not want fuss and fustian, 
“sound and fury signifying nothing,’’ “tearing a 
passion to tatters.” There must be real emotion, 
real passion and not the caricature of it when men 
yell and pound over nothing in a “worked-up” zeal 
and a perspiration mistaken for an inspiration. 
And we cannot conceive how any true minister, who 
realizes, as he should, the gravity of the business of 
saving souls, and the eternal issues for weal or woe 
involved in the choices that determine character; 
who has experienced personally the deep truths of 
the gospel of Christ, and is convinced of the absolute 
necessity of Jesus for a sinful humanity, can ever 
lack the genuine note of profound, heartfelt passion 
in his preaching. There is a distinct and imper¬ 
ative call for more of it in the pulpits of to-day. 


CHAPTER V 

The Bible and Spiritual Power 

Those who are saying that this is an undogmatic 
age, an age educated by the scientific spirit to 
demand evidence and proof suitable to the case in all 
teaching, are at the same time telling us that the 
present trend toward biblical study ought to be 
utilized in evangelistic preaching. The general, 
unevangelized public will listen to appeals to what 
is written in the Book with much more attention and 
regard than they will to any outlining or demon¬ 
stration in a metaphysical way of theological sys¬ 
tems. To bring to Christ through careful indoc¬ 
trination in the Holy Word is surely a method 
which appears at once rational and effective, even if 
it seems to lack sensational elements and to call for 
some time in the process. This is the great work 
which lies upon our Sunday schools to-day. And, 
outside of them, there are hundreds who are 
intensely interested in the figure of Christ, and who 
have taken up the study of the Bible, perhaps in a 
literary way at first, who are ripe for the harvest. 

If one would know what Christianity is, about the 
surest road to it is a thorough and sympathetic study 
of the life of Christ as told by the evangelists. To 
bring out his spirit, to unfold his ideals and impress 
them upon mind and heart through the devout and 
systematic study of the Gospels, is a program for 
the minister and Sunday school teacher that must 
inevitably hear much fruit. It will require, too, the 
ill 


112 


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most studious and prayerful application. For, to 
grasp great and creative principles, to penetrate to 
the depths of spiritual significance, to make broad 
and inspiring generalizations, is not a task for the 
superficial. But the great hope of the Church to-day 
is in the host of young people in Sunday schools 
and in Epworth Leagues and Christian Endeavor 
Societies, who out of an enthusiastic and systematic 
study of the Bible may be able to lead many to the 
Saviour. 

A secretary of the American Bible Society has 
presented one feature of Bible circulation which has 
not been sufficiently recognized. The Bible is itself 
an evangelist. Men are converted through preach¬ 
ing; but very frequently numbers have been awak¬ 
ened and converted—as might have been anticipated 
—without a preacher and simply by reading the 
Scriptures. And even with a preacher no message 
can be effective and no conversion can be lasting 
without the Bible in the hands of the convert. The 
man and the Book must go together for the best 
missionary work. But frequently the Book goes 
ahead of the man, prepares the way, makes converts 
eager for the preaching, and becomes, as has been 
said, “the plowshare for foreign missionary work.” 

The secretary tells of one man who commenced 
reading the Bible, felt convicted, threw the book 
down, but came back to it again and again, until he 
yielded to its power. In Mexico and South America 
missions and churches have almost invariably 
sprung up in the track of the traveling colporteur 
distributing his Bibles. In one place in South Amer¬ 
ica, the priests gathered up the Bibles, and burned 
them in the square, vainly repeating the methods of 


THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL POWER 113 

the sixteenth century in the twentieth. Fourteen 
native Chinese colporteurs were martyrs to the 
Christian faith in the Boxer uprising. In China 
itself, during that disturbance, the demand for 
Bibles fell off only 63,000 out of the usual supply of 
half a million copies. 

The Church of the Pentecost was the first Bible 
Society. It revered the Word, and it made immedi¬ 
ate plans to circulate it, so that before the close of 
the second century the apostolic Church had sent its 
Scriptures over the known world. But our modern 
Pentecost, whereby the Church speaks with other 
tongues as the Spirit gives utterance; whereby 
Chinamen, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Arabs, 
Armenians, East Indians, Africans, and Pacific 
Islanders are enabled to say, like the Parthians, 
Medes, and Cretans of old, “We hear them speaking 
in our tongues the mighty works of God”—this 
manifests convincingly in our day the presence of 
God and Christ and the descent of the Spirit. With 
presses thundering in New York, London, Berlin, 
Beyrout, Foochow, Shanghai, and Yokohama, pro¬ 
ducing the Bible in over three hundred languages 
and dialects by the millions of copies annually, and 
spreading them broadcast over the earth, surely the 
conversion of all nations to Christ must go on with 
accelerated pace until the glad millennial day. 

Among the writer’s most cherished friends was 
a certain layman, once prominent in the councils 
of the Church but now translated, whose example in 
regard to the study of the Bible might well stand as 
an inspiration to our laity and clergy alike. For 
over forty years he made it a practice to devote an 
hour daily to the close reading of the Scriptures. At 


114 


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the head of a great business firm, he yet found time, 
by taking a vest-pocket edition of the Book with him, 
to memorize daily four verses as he rode to and from 
his office. More than that: after his graduation 
from college he kept up his acquaintance with his 
classical studies, and especially with his Greek New 
Testament, with which he becaJme so familiar that 
at last he knew it practically by heart. This loving 
study led him to the reading and comparison of the 
various translations and revisions of our modern 
times—that of Alexander Campbell, of the Baptists, 
of Alford, of Conybeare and Howson, of the revisers 
of 1881; and when we found him one day, convalesc¬ 
ing after a sickness, he was deep in the edition of 
the American Revisers, whose work he praised 
enthusiastically. His wife was one with him in this 
research, and when we wanted a reference she turned 
to it readily without a concordance. It was refresh¬ 
ing and reassuring to see such veneration and affec¬ 
tion for a book which had so grown to be a part of 
his very existence. We conversed with him on such 
high themes as these: the Bible as a spiritual revela¬ 
tion; the meaning of “the Spirit of truth”; the loy¬ 
alty of Jesus to the truth; the candor of the Scrip¬ 
tures; the significance of “the body of sin”; the pro¬ 
found meanings in the various verses using “abide” 
and “abiding”; the prayers of Saint Paul in behalf 
of his converts for blamelessness of conduct and 
life hidden in Christ. It is his practice to look up 
all the cross-references given with every word and 
passage, and so he finds the Bible itself its own best 
commentator and illuminator. May it not be ques¬ 
tioned whether our preaching to-day would not be 
profounder, more spiritual, more practical and help- 


THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL POWER 


115 


ful, if our ministers were more imbued with such a 
veritable passion for the Book? And who can com¬ 
pute the effect on the Christianity of our times if 
our laymen would, even in a measure, follow the lead 
of such an absorbed student of God’s written revela¬ 
tion? 

Saint Paul declared that the chief glory of the 
Holy Writings was their ability “to make wise”; 
not to impart a wisdom in Greek philosophy, in 
oratory or sculpture; nor yet in the administrative 
arts of the Romans or the subtile reasoning of the 
Pharisees, but in that best of all kinds of wisdom 
which makes for conduct, character, salvation. 
These Scriptures, said the apostle, had their chief 
mark in their profitableness for teaching, warning, 
leading others in the true way, instructing in all 
righteousness, all moralities. It was their preemi¬ 
nent function to make all who would be men of God 
—sharing the divine life—“complete, furnished com¬ 
pletely unto every good work. ’ 9 

If this be, indeed, the supreme purpose of the 
Book, then other questions which collect about it are 
secondary and subsidiary. All the present-day 
searchings and findings of scholars concerning 
authorship, dates, and species of composition relate 
simply to the settings of the truth and not to the 
contained truth itself. They do not deal with nor 
affect the eternal and essential. Christian people 
ought to feel an undisturbed confidence in the 
“things which remain” after all possible reconstruc¬ 
tion by modern criticism. 

Indeed, is it not a little wonderful that Christians 
who have met Jesus in the ways and walks of daily 
life; for whom it has pleased God to reveal his Son 


116 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


in them; who, in special crises as well as in the com¬ 
mon round of existence, have had first-hand, vital, 
and illuminating experiences of Christ as a living, 
inspiring, redeeming Saviour—is it not wonderful 
that they should get into any alarm lest this Christ, 
whom they have so seen and known, should be dis¬ 
proved and discredited by criticism! And as we 
look down the centuries past, and behold the pal¬ 
pable and amazing historical results of Christianity 
—and if there were no other proof of the inspiration 
of our religion and the Scriptures, this would be a 
sufficient one—is it not a little surprising to note the 
concern of some good people lest any recent dis¬ 
coveries as to the origin and composition of certain 
manuscripts should “disprove 7 ’ all that stupendous 
actuality of moral and spiritual accomplishment and 
transformation! 

Writing in the Methodist Times, of London, that 
eminent and consecrated leader of the Wesleyan 
host, Dr. John Shaw Banks, says, “ Historical criti¬ 
cism of Scripture busies itself with questions of date, 
authorship, structure; questions apart, to a great 
extent, from the substance and sense of Scripture.” 
This substance he characterizes in the following 
words: “Scripture is throughout a message of 
redemption. We rightly enough say that its sole 
theme is religion, not history, science, cosmogony, 
but religion; and, still further, religion as redemp¬ 
tion. All other teachings are subsidiary to this. 
God is a redeeming God; the scene unfolded before 
us is the growth of the redemptive work. All Scrip¬ 
ture is a gospel. Its purpose is to point out the 
way of salvation. ’’ 

To our mind it is ineontrovertibly true that we 


THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL POWER 


117 


make too much of questions of date and authorship, 
however interesting such questions may be and how¬ 
ever legitimate and necessary it may be to try to 
determine them. But, quite apart from Elohist and 
Jehovist, apart from the identification of the 
Priestly Code or the Prophetic Narration or the 
Deuteronomic writing, the Pentateuch has a spirit¬ 
ual value which was felt long before “E” or “J” 
or “ JE” or “D” were ever discovered or named. 
There is certainly more to Jonah than the “ whale/ ’ 
infinitely more in the revelation of the tender 
mercies of a compassionate God with a love for all 
his children of every race, the manifestation too of 
a missionary impulse springing up among the 
Hebrews. There is vastly more to Isaiah than any 
scholastic problem of single, double, or multiple 
authorship. Above everything else sounds out the 
call: “Cease to do evil; learn to do well.” We do 
not know who wrote the book of Job, the grandest 
poem of the ages; we do not know, with certainty, 
who wrote the book of Hebrews. But this fact does 
not prevent us from getting out of these writings the 
eternal truths meant for our souls. In our child¬ 
hood we may have imagined that David composed 
all the book of Psalms. Later we discovered that 
the Psalter itself named other authors, and that 
many psalms were anonymous. Nevertheless, just 
as we sing every Sunday hymns the names of whose 
authors we do not look at, and many marked “un¬ 
known,” and yet get their spiritual inspiration 
despite our indifference or ignorance, so the psalms 
find an echo in our souls, whoever may have written 
them. Somebody wrote that glorious outburst of 
trust—somebody had that sublime experience of 


118 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


deliverance and joy, and we can make it our own, if 
we will, by appropriation. 

It really makes little difference when or by whom 
such eternal realities of the sonl-life were first 
voiced. The lofty strains of Homer, the dialogues 
of Plato, the vision of Dante—what matter essen¬ 
tially whether their date was five hundred years this 
way or that, before Copernicus or after ? They are 
everlastingly true. Thus it is with the great procla¬ 
mations of the Spirit, with the inspired words of 
prophet and apostle. The soul can disregard 
almanacs and chronological tables. Divisions of 
time are not for the spirit which inhabiteth eternity. 

One long-to-be-remembered evening we spent while 
a lady was sitting at her piano—a new and fine one— 
and we were listening to some nocturnes of Chopin 
beautifully rendered. By and by we asked for some 
old favorites, and for the next hour the strains which 
filled the room with tenderest suggestions were those 
of “Ben Bolt,” “The Land o’ the Leal,” “The Bells 
of Shandon,” “Bonnie Doon,” “John Anderson, 
My Jo’,” “Old Folks at Home,” “Annie Laurie,” 
“Kathleen Mavourneen,” “The Last Bose of Sum¬ 
mer,” “Bobin Adair,” “With Verdure Clad,” “Old 
Kentucky Home,” and many others redolent with 
memories of the past. No matter how often we hear 
these melodies of the long ago, there is a pathos and 
sweetness in them which touches our hearts beyond 
expression and in a way that the brand-new com¬ 
position, put on sale last week in the music store, can 
never do. For these old and beloved songs have 
become a part of our lives and have intertwined 
themselves with our sacredest recollections. Most of 
them too were evidently born of a true inspiration. 


THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL POWER 


119 


They came from the heart and they speak a natural 
language to the heart. 

It is precisely so with the familiar chapters and 
verses of the Bible. Mr. Ingersoll used to make 
very merry over the reverence and love Christians 
showed for a book so old—antiquated, he would say 
—and asked derisively what it was possible for 
people, living several thousands of years ago, to 
know that would be valuable to us. Why, he would 
claim, there was more information in any volume of 
science, just from the press, than in the entire old 
Bible of those way-back Hebrews. 

But the longings of man’s soul are not satisfied 
with the facts of geology, biology, astronomy, or 
physiology. A small treatise of physics will con¬ 
tain more useful science than Deuteronomy, the 
Psalms, and Saint John’s Gospel combined. But, 
nevertheless, those words in the Sacred Book, words 
of eternal life which 

Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make 
Our noisy years seem moments in the being 
Of the eternal Silence—truths that wake 
To perish never, 

—these are more to us than any newest facts about 
fossils, or nebulae, or protoplasms, or electrometers. 
They come to us fraught with the joys and sorrows 
of innumerable generations. They were dear to our 
ancestors—to grandsire, father, and mother. Our 
own biographies—the temptations, the trials, the 
passion, the triumph, the exaltations and visions of 
our lives—are written there in invisible ink be¬ 
tween the lines of those well-known but infinitely 
precious verses. Though hoary with age, they are 
ever new, and their hold on our hearts and on all 


120 


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liuman hearts to the end of time will never be weak¬ 
ened. 

We happened one day to be scanning a Saint Louis 
morning paper, and our eye fell upon the brief 
abstract of a sermon by the Rev. George E. Bates. 
The preacher had taken for his text the opening 
declaration of the Bible—“In the beginning, God” 
—and had drawn from the deep suggestiveness of 
the word the profoundest deductions as to the main 
intent of the revelation contained in Holy Writ. We 
do not know where we have seen it expressed more 
concisely or more luminously. Mr. Bates said: “It 
has been remarked that ‘the subject of the first 
chapter of Genesis is not the creation but the 
Creator—what it gives us is not a world but a God. ’ 
This remark strikes the keynote of the new thought 
in its attitude toward the Bible. Let those who will, 
search the Scriptures for the light they shed on past 
conceptions of science and upon the history of a 
unique race in the annals of the world. Let them 
study their literary development, and seek thus a 
keener appreciation of the men who wrote them. 
They cannot fail to be enlightened and interested. 
But the sincere Christian approaches the Scriptures 
with a different interest and purpose. He passes 
over the historical, the literary, and the scientific 
features of the Bible with small attention in his 
passionate search for that which the Scriptures are 
designed to reveal, namely, the person, will and 
work of God, and the nature and relationships of 
man. From Genesis to Revelation, in history, in 
law, in psalm and prophecy, in parable and epistle 
and apocalypse, on every page, God speaks to the 
human soul. ’ ’ 


THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL POWER 


121 


The agitation and alarm over the investigations of 
higher criticism are largely subsiding. We want, if 
possible, to protect Christian people against any 
panicky feeling in this era of transition and recon¬ 
struction. The foundations are not being destroyed. 
In that our faith is stable and unwavering. The 
fundamental revelations of our holy religion are 
untouched and unassailable. The meaning of the 
Bible is in its revelation of the relationships between 
God and man. The Bishop of Bipon (England) in 
his “Introduction to the Scriptures”—a small 
volume in the Temple Bible series which, for its 
reverent sanity, we are specially glad to commend— 
eloquently says :‘ 1 There are things which cannot be 
shaken, and truth is the highest law, and eternal 
life is independent of questions of names; it does 
not consist in knowing dates, or in distinguishing 
between history and parable; but it is a knowledge 
of our true relationship to God, of the characteristics 
involved in that relationship, and of the power of 
realizing both it and them. ’’ 

He speaks sympathetically of the pious old woman 
who was alive to the spiritual truths of the Bible 
which made clear to her, through story, psalm, and 
prophecy, this relationship of her soul to God, and 
the conditions, joys, sorrows, and experiences aris¬ 
ing out of the desire for, or the conviction of, that 
relationship. * 4 Other questions of great intellectual 
interest—questions of date, circumstances, literary 
or historical coherency, of style, language and 
custom—were practically outside her vision .’ 9 

But what of it as far as the practical development 
of religion in her soul and life was concerned, and 
the office and service of the Bible for such develop- 


122 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


ment? It is the good bishop himself who gives us a 
feeling description of the way any one of our devout 
forefathers used the Bible, a way in which many like 
them are profitably using it now: “He read every 
book of the Bible, seeking to draw from it personal 
edification; his mind was not anxious to settle the 
date of a book, or to disentangle a misplaced passage 
from an irrelevant context; his soul was athirst for 
God: he sought to read in this wonderful book the 
ways of God to men; he watched in its histories the 
indications of Providence; he observed the working 
out of the laws of right and wrong; he delighted in 
studying the character of Christ; his heart bled as 
he read the story of the cross; he was filled with 
triumph as he thought of the risen Lord.’ 9 
Is not this the main thing, the radical and essen¬ 
tial thing, to know Christ not after the flesh, in ways 
of literary or historical investigation, but after the 
Spirit? When, with Abraham, we hear a voice say¬ 
ing to us , 4 ‘ Fear not! I am thy shield and thy exceed¬ 
ing great reward”; when, with Joshua, we receive 
this heartening assurance, “I will not fail thee nor 
forsake thee”; when, with the psalmist, we can 
indeed feel, amid all the vicissitudes of life, that the 
Lord is really our Shepherd, that we shall want 
absolutely nothing, that goodness and mercy shall 
follow us forever, that the God of Jacob is our refuge 
too; when, with John, we can know of a truth, in the 
depths of our hearts, that ‘ 4 God is love, and he that 
dwelleth in love dwelleth in God”; when, with Paul, 
facing disaster and death, we can say, “None of 
these things move me,” “I can do all things through 
Christ which strengtheneth me’ ’■—then we know the 
real and abiding truth of the Bible. The best trans- 


THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL POWER 123 

lation of the Bible is not when its original Hebrew 
or Greek is turned into English or German, but 
when the divine experiences of its patriarchs and 
seers are turned into the vernacular of our own expe¬ 
rience, and we find that they supply us with a 
language for the deep emotions of our souls, and the 
rapturous visions of God which we too, in our day, 
repeat after them and share with them. 

Consequently, it is the utterance of the soundest 
common sense, as well as the verdict of the spiritual 
nature, which the Bishop of Ripon further ex¬ 
presses: “Uncertainty about minor matters, such 
as the date of events, or the order of some chapters, 
or on such questions as whether a particular narra¬ 
tive is parable or fact, may well be accepted, while 
uncertainty about practical duties of faith and life 
is intolerable. Hence all must feel that there is a 
great difference between the subsidiary facts of the 
Bible history, and the great spiritual principles 
which are unfolded to us there. Some matters and 
incidents might easily have been otherwise; and if 
they had been so, no difference would have been 
felt by us; we should not have been deprived of any 
single spiritual truth. It is really not important to 
us to know how many knives were brought back from 
Babylon, or how many people were slaughtered in a 
certain battle.’’ 

But it does make a vast difference about the words 
of eternal life, the words which shall never pass 
away, the speech of God to the soul of man, the 
teachings of Jesus which lay bare the very secrets 
of men’s hearts. Pondering on these words, the 
soul grows in its devotional life, in its aspirations 
Godward. 


124 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


There are doubtless many now who feel that they 
need, like the disciples of Christ, to be taught how 
to pray. They are quite conscious that they do not 
know how to pray as they ought. Even when they 
have no lack of fluency, they are aware that their 
petitions are in danger of running into ruts, and 
they lose fervency through repetition. We believe 
that one of the very best ways of praying is in con¬ 
nection with our reading of the Bible. As we read 
some devotional psalm of rapturous adoration and 
yearning after God; as we follow the words of Jesus, 
commencing with the Beatitudes, through the Ser¬ 
mon on the Mount and in many a precious parable 
and admonition; as we let Paul and John and James 
and Peter speak to us through their deep and search¬ 
ing epistles, we shall gain great spiritual benefit if 
we let our thoughts rise definitely Godward with a 
fervent supplication that those virtues and truths 
may be indeed realized in our own lives. At family 
worship and in private devotion it is an excellent 
thing, to use an old-time phrase, to “pray it in.” 

One may or may not literally “read the Bible 
upon his knees.” But let the attitude of his soul be 
constantly toward God as he reads, a mental frame 
of ardent desire for the possession of the “deep 
things” which come to his recognition out of the 
Scriptures. In word or thought, let him pray: “ 0, 
my Father, lead me into this experience; give me 
this faith; sanctify my soul in this grace; let me have 
this vision of thyself and thy will and law and love 
and purpose!” So shall one’s prayers never lack 
variety or fall into thoughtless repetitiousness. 
They shall be freighted with all the riches of the 
spiritual attainment of the men of faith through the 


THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL POWER 


125 


ages. For, if we form the habit we have just 
described, we need not limit it to the Bible. Wher¬ 
ever, in all our reading of good books, we meet some 
beautiful expression of a noble ideal, we can turn it 
immediately into a prayer. And so with what we 
hear spoken inspiringly in sermon or address or in 
conversation, so with the meditation of our own 
hearts. Let us vocally or silently say to it all, 
“Amen”—“So let it be, Lord, in my life.” Thus 
shall we be able, almost literally, to “pray always,” 
and not at set times merely, and the returns to us in 
blessing and spirituality shall be of incalculable 
worth. 

We are convinced that preachers in preparing 
their sermons frequently do not adequately appre¬ 
ciate the great reenforcement to their message which 
they might receive if they made more direct, full, 
and intelligent use of the Scriptures. According to 
Webster, our word “sermon” comes from a Latin 
root which means “to join or connect.” Hence a 
sermon is a connected discourse. But how fre¬ 
quently is it anything but that! It is made up of a 
miscellaneous series of observations, following each 
other in a rather loose order, and relating to some 
general theme. We do not mean to imply that it 
may not be good or beneficial, but question whether 
there is a very strict connection in it. This char¬ 
acteristic of disconnectedness probably comes, in 
most cases, from choosing a subject to develop 
instead of a text of Scripture to explain and enforce. 
Often the minister prepares his sermon on some 
such general theme as love, or faith, or patience, or 
hope, and, after it is finished, goes to hunting some 
sort of a text which may serve as a caption for it, 


126 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


but which neither he nor his congregation keeps in 
mind two minutes after it is announced. Such texts 
have been rather felicitously described as ‘ i pre¬ 
text s.” 

Of course all the traditions of the pulpit demand 
that the minister shall take a text from the Bible, 
even when he does not preach from it. If this were 
not the case, any good quotation from Shakespeare, 
Browning, or Tennyson might serve as caption just 
as well, as far as any subsequent attention is paid 
to the text by the preacher. He would get along 
quite as well as regards any help he or his auditors 
get from the text itself. Would it not be better when 
he is to elaborate some general theme—and such 
preaching, we must admit, is frequently both legit¬ 
imate and helpful—if, instead of announcing any 
one verse as though he were about to unfold its 
meaning, the preacher would read quite a large 
number of verses touching various phases of the 
truth, and then build his discourse upon their gen¬ 
eralized teaching? And would it not be better still 
if our preachers would more frequently give us 
strictly textual sermons, keeping very close to the 
words and meaning of Holy Writ, and, without 
wandering, draw out the deeper significances which 
lie hidden in the verse, but which, when brought 
forth, are plainly perceived to be included, although 
all undiscerned before? 

When mental and spiritual insight and originality 
are thus applied to the Scriptures, they become a 
veritable bonanza for the reverent student, and 
untold treasures can be taken thence for his people. 
His own thoughts may run very shallow in time, if 
he makes all his sermons on the essay or oration 


THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL POWER 127 

plan, spinning them out of his own reading or cogita¬ 
tions, and tacking a hastily selected text, not always 
the most appropriate one, onto them afterward. 
And sometimes, it must be sadly conceded, as in the 
case of the pulpit sensationalist, the text is about the 
only thing religious in what may be charitably 
termed “an address.” But the riches of the Bible, 
in the illimitable suggestiveness of its unsearchable 
truths, will never be exhausted. In the language of 
miners, the preacher will strike a rich lead there, and 
the vein will grow thicker all the time. 

Phillips Brooks, in this country, was notably suc¬ 
cessful in this kind of preaching, as is Watkins on, 
of London, and as was Robertson, of Brighton. 
These men gratefully surprise us by throwing power¬ 
ful new lights upon the most familiar texts, and 
great lessons for life, which were evidently there 
and not read into them nor forced upon them, start 
out of the well-known words. They thrill us with 
a sudden and peculiar joy, making the Bible mean 
vastly more to us every time we listen to such dis¬ 
courses. Sermons like these, flowing out from pro¬ 
found texts, abide in the memory because the text 
abides with its words as a memoriter hint to help us 
remember the preacher’s noble exposition. We 
commend the making of such sermons for more 
frequent usage by our ministers. But let them take 
the richest texts, full of the finest spiritual mean¬ 
ings, and not some accidental verse which can yield 
only the most ordinary commonplaces, and these, 
perhaps, only by a violent effort of imagination. 

Who can doubt too that one of the highest services 
which any true minister can render his people is to 
infuse them with a fresh enthusiasm for a steady, 


128 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


progressive reading and study of the Word? It is 
for him, too, to show how a right use of intelligence 
and reason can be successfully combined with rever¬ 
ence and trust in this study. A lecturer to whom 
we recently listened threw upon the screen the pic¬ 
ture of an enormous sperm whale in the act of 
devouring a huge cuttlefish sixty feet long. He 
declared he had seen sharks, even bigger than that, 
lying whole within the bellies of such whales, along 
with a respectable cargo of smaller fish. The right 
whale has a different sort of a throat, but, as for the 
sperm whale, he could, as a preacher lately pro¬ 
claimed, take down a whole trolley-load of Jonahs 
through his capacious mouth, sixty feet wide, and 
his yawning abyss of a throat, into his Mammoth- 
Cave stomach. But when a good old lady rises in 
prayer meeting and says, as we once heard one say, 
that, if the Bible had declared that Jonah swallowed 
the whale rather than that the whale swallowed 
Jonah, she would have believed it, we confess to a 
trifle of hesitation. We later asked an intelligent 
woman what she thought of such a statement, and 
her ready reply was, ‘ 4 Well, the Bible doesn’t say 
any such absurd things.” We felt relieved. There 
is no need of multiplying fictitious difficulties for 
faith. There is no need of raising tests for belief 
which the Bible itself does not raise. There is no 
need of stating doctrines, which can be intelligently 
put, in a way that places a strain upon the reason. 
We once heard a preacher who took for his text, 
“How can these things be?” He then proceeded to 
give every dogma of the Christian Church a setting 
as opposed as imaginable to any rational expression 
of it, and then, when reason revolted and asked in 


THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL POWER 129 

dismay how it could possibly be, he threw himself 
triumphantly on the omnipotence of God—“With 
God all things are possible!” But God does not 
put his omnipotence at the service of unreason, or 
perform capricious freaks to baffle and confuse our 
intelligence in hopeless mazes. If he works miracles 
which we cannot comprehend, he at least lets us see 
some reason for them. If there are profound and 
mysterious doctrines, there are yet rays of light, 
which come out of their depths and which leave the 
mind in something better than Egyptian darkness 
—nay, which illuminate and satisfy it. 

An excellent method of training a congregation 
to an aroused interest in the Sacred Word has been 
suggested. A religious journalist has advocated the 
practice in church of the worshipers in the pews hav¬ 
ing their open Bibles to follow the lessons of the day, 
which the preachers shall read from some of the 
several new translations or paraphrases, as found in 
the Twentieth Century New Testament, the Modern 
Reader’s Bible, the Messages of the Bible, and 
others. If such a reading were accompanied with 
brief and carefully thought-out comment, the writer 
believes—and we are inclined to agree with him— 
that it “would give to many worshipers a new inter¬ 
est in the Bible, and move them to a fresh study of 
it; it would hold the attention of those on whose ears 
the familiar words of the King'James Bible fall 
unheeded.” 

We would not be understood as making too gen¬ 
eral and sweeping statements as to the indifference 
of Christians regarding Bible study. It is one of the 
good signs of the times—even in the midst of all the 
critical investigation of the Scriptures—that so 


130 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


many people, young and old, are becoming awakened 
to the message of inspiration. There is in many 
rather unsuspected quarters a revival of interest in 
the Old Book. We have been told of a club of women 
in Chicago, composed of Protestants, Catholics, 
Jewesses, agnostics, secularists—all stripes of faith 
and no faith—who, after exhausting Browning, 
Tennyson, Ibsen, and everybody else, invited a pro¬ 
fessor of Chicago University to take them through 
some books of the Bible in a literary but not a reli¬ 
gious way. He commenced with Job and Ecclesi¬ 
astes, and they were greatly attracted by them. The 
next year he took up with them the Prophets; the 
third, the Acts of the Apostles; and in the fourth, 
introduced this mixed club, now thoroughly inter¬ 
ested, to the Gospels. Some were religiously 
aroused; some had taken to reading the Bible in pri¬ 
vate and devotionally, and others had gone to teach¬ 
ing in the Sunday school. His point was well taken: 
through any gate—literary, historical, archaeological, 
if not practical and devotional—get people into the 
Scripture-fields, and the good outcome may be 
trusted to itself. 

In the experience of many pastors it is a constant 
surprise and disappointment to observe how few 
church members ever enter the Sunday school or 
take advantage of its instruction in God’s Word. In 
some schools there are large adult Bible classes, but 
these have been the exception. At present, however, 
such classes are multiplying, and the situation is 
somewhat relieved when we think of the growing 
numbers in the home department of the Sunday 
school, which now has its own literature and is estab¬ 
lished in permanence. We have not the statistics, 


'HE BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL POWER 


131 


but we have the impression that there are compar¬ 
atively few men enrolled in this department. The 
Men and Eeligion Movement may bring about a 
better condition. 

We confess we cannot understand the seeming 
indifference of Christian people to the reverent and 
intelligent study of the Scriptures. It is a serious 
question whether the majority of our people are 
not neglecting the private reading of the Bible for 
the daily newspaper and the current magazine. We 
hope we are wrong, but we cannot escape our impres¬ 
sion. The young people, in their devotional organ¬ 
izations, are being stimulated to scriptural study, 
and are quite generally applying themselves to it, 
but how is it with those older—their fathers and 
mothers ? 

Meanwhile there is evidently a great amount of 
reverence for the Bible still surviving, and there 
is much resentment whenever it is supposed to be 
attacked. This is well and promising, but too gen¬ 
eral to yield spiritual results, which can come only 
from a definite, systematic, studious, and reveren¬ 
tial acquaintance with the Holy Writings. Consid¬ 
ering what rich and illuminating stores of wisdom 
and information are now available for the explana¬ 
tion of the sacred text, it becomes an increasing 
mystery why all Christian people are not engaged 
in its regular study, and why the most of them are 
not in our Bible schools taking advantage of the 
flood of light that now pours over the wonderful 
revelation of truth. It would seem reasonable to 
expect a veritable passion for such knowledge, and 
we have faith to believe that it will yet come. 

Dr. W. W. White once presented an illuminating 


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DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


article in the Bible Record on ‘ ‘ The Divine Library: 
Its Abuse and Use.” Dr. White does not believe in 
any flippant and cheap study of the Bible. He thinks 
we want no bibliolatry, no worship of a book, but in 
this irreverent age more reverence for the Word of 
God should dwell in us. Second-hand Bible study 
should be avoided, and men should do their own 
thinking and concluding. On the other hand, a 
sweeping refusal to use any helps in Bible study 
would be just as much a mistake as to depend alto¬ 
gether upon them. Some people even repudiate the 
Revised Version. There is a story of a deacon who 
said that if the Authorized Version was good enough 
for Saint Paul, it was good enough for him. But 
the same spirit that would keep us from using the 
suggestions of other men would prevent us also from 
listening to expository sermons. 

‘‘Intellectual effort,” says Dr. White, “is not in¬ 
compatible with true piety and the deepest spiritual¬ 
ity in understanding the Bible. Rather, it is essen¬ 
tial to it; for all profitable meditation upon the 
Word of God involves a mental grasp of its truth. 
Because the Bible is more than literature, it is none 
the less true literature.” We want the right atti¬ 
tude of the soul in its study, but there is no reason 
why a soul in a right attitude should not use the best 
methods. More than mere snatches of time, when 
the mind is dull, should be accorded the Book. It 
should have a fair chance with other books in serious 
study. It is an equally flagrant mistake to treat it 
exactly like any other book, in forgetfulness of its 
origin and of its direct appeal to the spiritual life. 
Bible study should be comprehensive and not frag¬ 
mentary, after the style which has been denominated 


THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL POWER 133 

‘‘plum-pickingthat is, the selection of “nice 
verses’’ to repeat in meetings. It is, doubtless, all 
right to have favorite chapters, but not to the exclu¬ 
sion of a general use of the Book. There must be a 
variety of foods to sustain life. For well-balanced 
men there must be the balance of a full knowledge of 
the Scriptures, and favoritism for certain books must 
not go to the extent of leaving the reader ignorant 
of the Bible as a whole. 

Professor William Lyon Phelps, of Yale, pro¬ 
poses the substitution of the Bible (Authorized 
Version) for the selections from the English classics 
now required for college entrance examinations. 
He advocates this, in the first place, because of the 
lamentable ignorance of the English Bible on the 
part of college students. Because of this he would 
erase every list of books that has thus far been tried 
or suggested and put the Bible in its place. In de¬ 
fense of this radical suggestion he says: “The 
ignorance of college students of biblical literature is 
universal, profound, and complete. The students at 
Harvard and Yale, different as they are in many 
respects from their brothers in small colleges, 
resemble them closely here. If all the undergrad¬ 
uates in America could be placed in one room and 
tested by a common examination on the supposedly 
familiar stories of the Old Testament, I mean on 
such instances as Adam, Eve, and the Garden of 
Eden, Noah, Samson, David and Goliath, Moses and 
Pharaoh, the result would be a magnificent contri¬ 
bution to American humor. The experience of 
teachers with other books is almost never the same 
in two institutions of learning; but ask any teacher 
in the United States what luck he has with the Bible, 


134 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


and he throws up his hands in despair. I inquired 
of one fine young specimen of American manhood 
what he thought Shakespeare meant by the phrase, 
‘Here we feel not the penalty of Adam/ and he 
replied, ‘It was the mark put upon Adam for hav¬ 
ing slain his brother.’ To another lad, who was 
every inch a gentleman, I put the question, ‘Explain 
the line, “Or memorize another Golgotha,” ’ and his 
face became a blank; I came to his relief with the 
remark, ‘Golgotha is a New Testament reference.’ 
A light of intelligence illumined his handsome face. 
He replied, ‘It was Goliath.’ Instances like these 
two are of constant and almost daily occurrence in 
the work of American college teachers. It is cer¬ 
tainly unfortunate that the best book ever printed 
should be so little known, and that the frequent 
references to it in practically every English author 
should be meaningless.” 

We heard recently of a young man—a candidate 
for the ministry—who was asked who wrote the 
book of Jeremiah. At first he looked blank. Then, 
brightening up, he replied, “I think he was a Jew.” 
Another averred his belief that it was Christ who led 
the children of Israel through the wilderness. An¬ 
other had a vague conception that “Sodom and 
Gomorrah were a man and a woman back there 
somewhere in the Old Testament.” One student 
came to his professor asking if the book of Daniel 
was not a very difficult book. “In many ways, yes,” 
was the answer. “What is the chief difficulty you 
discover in it?” “My chief difficulty,” replied the 
student, “is to find it.” Another, being asked to 
name one of the catholic epistles, after some hesi¬ 
tation proposed Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. “He 


THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL POWER 


135 


wrote that to the Roman Catholics,” he said. An¬ 
other was found hunting for 4 ‘ Hebrews ’’ in the Old 
Testament, and so on. It would he ridiculous if it 
were not pitiable. 

Furthermore, Professor Phelps argues for his 
suggestion on the basis of literature itself. He 
would refuse to allow any candidate to enter a uni¬ 
versity until he had passed a satisfactory examina¬ 
tion on the Bible. The collection of books making 
up the Bible comprises as great a literature, to say 
the least, as the classics of Greece and Rome. They 
have entered more intimately into our own literature 
and our customs, laws, and institutions. To be 
ignorant of them is to be ignorant where knowledge 
is most absolutely essential and the absence of it 
least excusable. Professor Phelps contends that 
1 ‘ the Bible has within its pages every single kind of 
literature that any proposed list of English classics 
contains; it has narrative, descriptive, poetical, 
dramatic, argumentative, and oratorical passages. 
It covers everything that the ingenuity of a com¬ 
mittee in arranging for an English list could pos¬ 
sibly discover. . . . Priests, atheists, skeptics, 
devotees, agnostics, and evangelists are all agreed 
that the Authorized Version of the English Bible is 
the best example of English composition that the 
world has ever seen. It combines the noblest prose 
and poetry with the utmost simplicity of diction.” 

But it is not only in the schools that the Bible 
needs to be introduced and given a larger chance. 
We fear it would be a depressing revelation to many 
pastors if they could take a census of their member¬ 
ship, and discover in how few homes, comparatively, 
the practice of daily family worship, with the read- 


136 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


ing of a biblical chapter, is still observed. Perhaps 
the pastor does not care to know the specific data. 
It is enough for him to be convinced of the fact of a 
decided declension in this phase of religion. It 
seems to us that this is one of the subjects which 
could, with great profit, be used in many of the pul¬ 
pits of the land. 

To anyone accustomed to such a holy observance 
as family worship there is little need of emphasizing 
the benefits therefrom. There is nothing that will 
act more beneficially upon the piety of each individ¬ 
ual of the home membership; nothing which will 
prove a firmer and dearer tie to keep the family 
circle closely bound together; nothing that will so 
sanctify human love and elevate it to the rank of a 
sacrament; nothing that will so cement the affec¬ 
tions of husbands and wives, and more surely pre¬ 
vent the fallings-out, separations, and divorces so 
painfully prevalent at present; nothing that will so 
draw the affections of brothers and sisters together, 
turn the hearts of fathers to their children and of 
children to their fathers; nothing which, by bringing 
every perplexity and anxiety to God, will so help 
over the hard places in the home life and in business; 
nothing that will so promote that best kind of all 
genuine religion which finds both its most legitimate 
field and function in the home, and the largest oppor¬ 
tunity of its illustration in mutual love, unselfish 
serviceableness, and the contribution of each to the 
higher life of the others. 

Praying for guidance, the day begins with the 
consciousness of the companionship of God. As a 
kind of sub-current running through their busiest 
hours, men may be prompted to grow aware of the 


THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUAL POWER 


137 


divine life and leading. They shall be better kept 
from sin if they have sincerely implored that their 
thoughts and acts may be under the Spirit’s influ¬ 
ence. The reading, with free comment and explana¬ 
tion, of the Bible in the midst of the family group— 
the children, perhaps, interrupting to ask some ques¬ 
tion and understand more clearly—is a rare delight. 
Never is the priesthood of time believers better illus¬ 
trated than when, as in the “Cotter’s Saturday 
Night,” “the priestlike father reads the sacred 
page,” 

Then kneeling down, to heaven’s Eternal King, 

The saint, the father, and the husband prays. 

Indeed, as Burns well intimates, religion never 
seems more real than at the family altar, where, of 
necessity, all display is ruled out. After depicting 
his immortal scene, he says: 

Compared with this, how poor Religion’s pride, 

In all the pomp of method and of art. 

When men display to congregations wide, 

Devotion’s every grace, except the heart! 

We are firmly convinced that one of the best prep¬ 
arations for an extensive religious awakening 
throughout our Christendom would be a general 
revival of interest in all Christian homes of the 
institution of family worship. 

Thus in every way, by encouraging the devotional 
use of the Bible in the home, by advocating and illus¬ 
trating it from the pulpit, by making the Sunday 
school more enlarged and efficient, by utilizing the 
incalculable services of seminaries and colleges, 
may we bring about a more general and appreciative 
interest in the Bible, and, by consequence, a deeper 
and much-needed spirituality in the Church and com¬ 
munity. 


CHAPTER VI 

Power in the Inner Life 

Christians have made much of the appeal to con¬ 
sciousness and 6 ‘ experience’ ’ in the religious life. 
The whole trend of religion to-day is toward this 
experimental test. He that is willing to do God’s 
will shall know. Lyman Abbott, in a recent essay 
on 4 ‘ The Religious Rights of Man, ’ ’ says: ‘‘ This is 
religion—the personal perception of the Infinite. 
This is the quest of humanity—not a complete knowl¬ 
edge, not a comprehensive system, but God Himself, 
nothing else than God Himself. And such a quest 
must necessarily be personal. It must be conducted 
by each man for himself. It cannot be done vica¬ 
riously. ’ ’ 

It is this we must contend for and bear witness to 
—the first-hand knowledge of God and of his grace 
in Jesus Christ, accessible to every man, capable of 
being directly testified to by any man, however 
humble. It is this which constitutes the peculiar 
uniqueness of Christianity—the transforming con¬ 
tact of the Unseen with man in his guilt, the new 
birth from above, the miracle of the Spirit’s super¬ 
natural action in the heart and life. Christianity is 
not simply a philosophy or a scheme of doctrine to 
be held in the intellect and tested by reason, but a 
life which may be experienced and proclaimed by 
word and act. And, in an age of science, which 
demands fact and test and proof, it meets the full 
demands of those who would challenge its credibility. 

138 


POWER IN THE INNER LIFE 


139 


James’s “Varieties of Religious Experience” 
would seem to reduce religious experience to an alto¬ 
gether too general and vague a thing, and to make 
it consist in any rapt state of solemnity, happiness, 
courage, self-abnegation, or ecstasy. We quote 
what this author says: “When we survey the whole 
field of religion we find a great variety in the 
thoughts that have prevailed there; but the feelings 
on the one hand and the conduct on the other are 
almost always the same, for Stoic, Christian, and 
Buddhist saints are practically indistinguishable in 
their lives.” This seems to us to surrender the 
whole case as far as Christianity makes its claims to 
being a unique revelation and a religion, standing, 
like its God and Christ, alone, unapproachable, in a 
class which it occupies all by itself and shares with 
no other. We do not believe that the comparison of 
the lives and experiences of the devotees of other 
religions will exhibit essential equality in purity and 
true holiness with those of our faith. If that were 
so, there would be little reason for missionary 
efforts. Neither our missionaries on heathen soil 
nor the converts from heathenism would admit the 
truth of such an affirmation. 

Another and more general criticism we must make 
against such books and against the products of the 
whole school of the new psychology that interprets 
religious moods largely in physiological terms. 
While we admit that they may throw much light on 
the phenomena of religion, and help us to under¬ 
stand and direct them, nevertheless, the analysis 
strikes us as unpleasantly like a piece of vivisection. 
We do not enjoy having the holiest raptures of faith 
coolly taken apart in the laboratory as a chemical 


140 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


might be resolved into its bases and gases. There is 
something in the lofty ecstasy of a holy faith so 
different from the cool, investigating temper of the 
scientist that the vision seems to fade when brought 
under microscope and tried by test tubes. It is like 
a mathematician trying to compute a poem; like a 
bank cashier trying to estimate an oratorio in the 
units of the money market. It is a carving-up of the 
human heart to discover the hiding place of its pro- 
foundest emotions, and to lay bare its secrets as 
evidently as fossils or acids can he named and tabu¬ 
lated. 

It may be we are all wrong. We acknowledge that 
it is more as a feeling than as a definite conception 
that we have this prejudice. But we are prompted 
to say to the scientists that there are some things not 
dreamed of in their philosophy—some things that 
lie outside of “the laboratory method’’ and are too 
internal and sacred to yield their innermost meaning 
to any psychological research whatever. 

Nevertheless, in bringing to the front religious 
experience as a fact which must be admitted and 
accounted for by scientific investigators, Dr. James 
has put all evangelical Christianity in his debt. For 
it is to the great facts of experience that Christianity 
has always made its appeal, and to these experi¬ 
mental and satisfying graces and evidences of the 
work of Cod in the heart that she has always invited 
her converts. Our faith puts before the world the 
challenge to Nathanael—a test which ought to be 
thoroughly agreeable to a scientific age, which be¬ 
lieves in proving all things and which should receive 
its generous indorsement—“Come and see.” 

And this experience of the believer, this conscious- 


POWER IN THE INNER LIFE 


141 


ness of the divine operation on the heart, is the same 
for the believer of the twentieth century as it was 
for him of the first century. Systems of thought 
and schools of theology may rise and wane, hut this 
primal evidence, known to the converted and trust¬ 
ing soul at first-hand, does not alter or pass away. 
One of the most popular of the melodies of the 
Jubilee Singers is that whose refrain runs like this: 

O the old-time religion! 

It was good enough for father. 

It was good enough for mother. 

And it’s good enough for me. 

It rarely fails to strike a responsive chord in the 
hearts of the auditors. And with good reason. For 
the essentials of real religion can never change. 
There is always the same God to believe in and 
trust; the same Christ to confess and follow; the 
same Holy Spirit to receive for inspiration and sanc¬ 
tification ; the same Bible to read, love, and obey; the 
same homely code of duty to regard and practice; 
the same injunction of love to God and neighbor to 
observe; the same obligation of prayer, self-denial, 
philanthropy, and humanitarianism; the same glori¬ 
ous gospel to listen to and rejoice in; the same 
heaven and immortality in the future. 

Theology, as the science of religion and the inter¬ 
pretation of great religious realities, may advance 
and offer new definitions and expositions from gen¬ 
eration to generation. We are not singing about the 
old-time theology which was good enough for father, 
good enough for mother, and is good enough for us. 
Martin Luther and John Wesley, at least, thought 
that their theology was a good deal better than 
that of many of their ancestors. 


142 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


We must keep this distinction ever clearly in mind. 
Is there some theologian to-day who, because of his 
wider and juster and humaner views of God and 
Christ and of the nature of salvation, is tempted to 
underrate and decry the religion of his forebears? 
Let him only examine the records of the past to dis¬ 
cover his error. He will find there the unmistakable 
evidence of a love and loyalty to the Father and the 
Saviour that is not excelled, if it be equaled, in the 
midst of all our twentieth-century erudition. It can¬ 
not be denied that theological teaching does have a 
not inconsiderable effect, in the long run, upon the 
religious life. The Wesleyan teaching of 4 4 free 
grace and dying love,” of “a wideness in God’s 
mercy,” brought about a different type of religious 
life than that which extreme Calvinism had pro¬ 
duced. And we can all readily see some slight dif¬ 
ference between Episcopalians, Methodists, and 
Presbyterians to-day. Yet, after all, the differences 
are superficial, and the main currents of religious 
life in all set in the same direction. 

We cannot and do not rule out, as do the mystics, 
intellectual conceptions, dogmas, creedal definitions, 
theologies from the field of experimental religion. 
The intellect and reason must have a large place 
there. But their place is mostly in the validation 
and interpretation of those primal instincts of the 
heart and intuitions of the soul which are the con¬ 
trolling forces in religion. We have advanced in art 
and science and theology far beyond the ancient 
Hebrews. But it would be difficult for us to-day to 
find a better expression of faith than the ‘ * old-time 
religion” of the twenty-third and one hundred and 
third psalms. And for the most part of twenty 


POWER IN THE INNER LIFE 143 

centuries theology has been engaged in trying to 
fathom and understand and draw out the profound 
utterances of the spiritual life of the New Testa¬ 
ment writers. The ‘ 4 old-time religion” of Peter, 
John, James, and Paul is good enough for us or any¬ 
body. There can be no better, and the best that 
theology can do is to help us get hold of it and prac¬ 
tice it more adequately. 

Having said this, it remains to say briefly also 
that it is quite as much out of place for any preacher 
or theologian to try to estop all advance in theology, 
and to seek to tie the Church up to the conceptions 
and definitions of past ages by an appeal to 1 ‘ the old- 
time religion.” Again we say that the distinction 
between religion and theology as the science of reli¬ 
gion must never be forgotten or overlooked. Like 
the i ‘ old-time religion, ’’ good old mother earth, and 
the elements and forces, and the stars and physical 
life and vegetation remain the same. But, like theol- 
ogy, geology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, biology, 
and botany—the sciences of the things and not the 
things themselves—must necessarily advance and 
change continually. Some of us may not be holding 
to-day precisely the same theological views that our 
grandfathers and grandmothers, or even our fathers 
and mothers, held; and we are not to be thought 
therefor blameworthy. But it would not be well for 
us, and we will gain nothing but loss and peril, if we 
shall, in any measure, depart from the simple piety, 
the sweet and vital trust of their “old-time reli¬ 
gion.” 

That religion was not ashamed of expressing itself 
emotionally and even rapturously. Let us consider 
whether Christians of our time are acting with the 


144 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


largest wisdom in reacting so severely and suppress¬ 
ing emotion so absolutely. Even in the Methodist 
Church, which was once preeminent for its emotional 
responses to the preaching of the gospel, there is 
nothing now but a very dignified self-restraint. 
Whenever members of other denominations wish to 
characterize members of that Church they usually 
refer to them as “the shouting Methodists.” This 
is Lyman Abbott’s favorite appellation. Everyone 
familiar with present-day Methodism is perfectly 
aware that the term is an evident misnomer in this 
day. However applicable it might have been once, 
it describes them at this date no more particularly 
than it does other communions. The 1 ‘ amen corner ’ 1 
is a historical relic. One has to hunt for it, as for a 
grandfather’s clock, in the shops of antiquarians. 

It is true that, in the beginning of its history, 
Methodism represented the opposite extreme to 
Quakerism. One could hardly speak of “sitting in 
the quiet” when a good, lively Methodist meeting 
was in full blast. And there was excellent reason 
and full apology for considerable demonstration. 
When a people who had been long lying in a le¬ 
thargic religious state were suddenly aroused from 
their stupor by the stirring voice of the evangelist, 
and brought out from their deadness and peril to a 
consciousness of spiritual vitality and full salvation, 
nothing was more natural than their joyousness and 
spontaneous expressions of gratitude. With such 
an experience it is not wonderful that Methodism 
came into the kingdom with a song and a shout. The 
new wine needed new wine skins. The old bottles— 
the old formulas and rituals—would have burst with 
the new fermentation. There was an immediate de- 


POWER IN THE INNER LIFE 


145 


mand for more “Amens” than there were in the 
Prayer Book, although they were not infrequent 
there. The outgushing and overflowing life exceeded 
the capacity of even ancient and stately rituals to 
express. The services became free and elastic, 
breaking through the bounds of the liturgy. The 
litany no longer sufficed the needs of rapturous 
souls whose irrepressible thanksgivings and aspira¬ 
tions demanded individuality and spontaneity. 
“Praise God!” “Hallelujah!” “Thank the Lord!” 
—the utterance of these exclamations was something 
more than surface ebullition. It came from the 
agitation of soul-depths. It was not an effervescence 
of froth and foam. It was the ecstatic cry of souls 
burning with love to God, filled with adoration for 
a Saviour who had washed their sins away. If ever 
these Methodist responses, originally so fresh and 
meaningful, came, in some times and places, to be 
stereotyped and meaningless, it was simply by the 
abuse of a legitimate privilege and practice. 

For we must insist upon the validity of the feel¬ 
ings in religion. They have their proper place and 
function there. They have their due rights, and they 
suffer an injustice when, in the supposed interests 
of a cold intellectuality which would vainly attempt 
to imprison religion within its frigid formularies, 
they are crushed into dumb submission. This was 
what had happened in the eighteenth century when 
feeling was derided and a barren rationalism was 
rampant. Wesley set the emotions free and they 
resumed their rightful prerogatives in religion. The 
plantation melody expresses a true philosophy: 

I do believe, without a doubt, 

A Christian has a right to shout. 


146 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


It is a far cry from such a couplet as that to the 
noble stanzas of “In Memoriam.” But it is the 
same great truth which Tennyson voices in these 
deeply significant lines: 

If e’er, when faith had fall’n asleep, 

I heard a voice, “Believe no more,” 

And heard an ever-breaking shore 

That tumbled in the Godless deep; 

A warmth within the breast would melt 
The freezing reason’s colder part, 

And, like a man in wrath, the heart 

Stood up and answered, “I have felt.” 

This satisfying answer of the heart Tennyson 
trusted to, in his search for God, rather than to any 
arguments from design, however logical: 

I found Him, not in world or sun, 

Or eagle’s wing, or insect’s eye. 

And so there is no necessity of any confession of 
shame because of emotionalism in old-time Meth¬ 
odism. God made the feelings as truly as he made 
the intellect, and they have, at least, some sort of 
respectability. It is true that culture tends to the 
repression of sentiment and we become rigidly self- 
contained, silent, and glum. It is true that modern 
city life puts its stamp of uniformity and conformity 
upon all and runs us into its prescribed molds. We 
think it something disgraceful to be in any way 
original, to say or do anything out of the ordinary. 
We treat our emotions like condemned criminals, 
put them in dark cells or in strait-jackets, and bid 
them keep silence under penalty. But it would be 
rather difficult for anyone to assign any justifying 
argument for all this self-mutilation. Certainly 


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Methodism has gained little and lost much by laps¬ 
ing into so much stiff conventionality. It ought 
sedulously to endeavor to keep whatever freedom 
of the spirit it has left. 

But while we say this, we do not for a moment 
admit that the phrase “shouting Methodists ’ 9 hits 
anything radically essential in Methodism. Meth¬ 
odism is more than an emotion. Mere emotionalism 
may be a sterile and unproductive thing. Method¬ 
ism in its inception and throughout its history has 
been too practical, too zealous for piety, righteous¬ 
ness, reform, education, and philanthropy to come, 
with any justice, under any such imputation. Its 
emotionalism is its natural joy and its privilege 
rather than its fundamental essence. It is the out¬ 
ward expression of its real inwardness, its true 
genius, rather than the inner secret of the life itself. 
Its message is of the absolute necessity of faith and 
works. Emotion comes as the result of duty per¬ 
formed, and the relation of the two is well given by 
King Arthur, who describes himself to his Knights 
of the Table Bound in these words of deep meaning: 

“The King must guard 
That which he rules, and is hut as the hind 
To whom a space of land is given to plow, 

Who may not wander from the allotted field 
Before his work be done; but, being done. 

Let visions of the night or of the day 

Come, as they will; and many a time they come. 

Until this earth he walks on seems not earth, 

This light that strikes his eyeball is not light. 

This air that smites his forehead is not air; 

But vision—yea, his very hand and foot— 

In moments when he feels he cannot die. 

And knows himself no vision to himself, 

Nor the high God a vision, nor that One 
Who rose again.” 


148 


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The American Israelite, as we have previously 
remarked, says, out and out, that it does not believe 
in an emotional religion, and we are not surprised. 
It mistakenly identifies emotion with hysteria, and 
contends that religion is not something that we can 
“get,” but something that we must have, that must 
flow from within. We are in perfect accord with the 
Israelite when it argues that, though the emotional 
element cannot be left out of the content of religion, 
it must not he the only element there, or it will 
degenerate into fanaticism. “The Jew,” says the 
Israelite, “does not believe in an intermittent reli¬ 
gion. With him religion should be a constant firm¬ 
ness and steadiness with God. It finds its highest 
expression in the biblical thought, ‘Walk before me, 
and be thou perfect.’ 9 ’ 

It might be a surprise to the Israelite and its 
Jewish readers to find a Christian agreeing with it 
so fully and heartily in its conception and definition 
of religion; but, nevertheless, we have no different 
thought of what constitutes right religion than that 
so well expressed by this Jewish writer. Certainly 
evangelical Christianity will never allow itself to be 
represented as a kind of mania or insanity. Emo¬ 
tion of the right kind has no particular relationship 
to hysterics, hypochondria, or any other nervous 
jerkiness or moodiness. 

What would a political meeting be like if the most 
earnest exhortations and brilliant oratorical flights 
were met with stony silence! We do not want 
demonstrations quite as exuberant as those of a hot 
presidential campaign, but why can we not have a 
little more responsiveness in our religious meetings ! 
Why should it be supposed that we honor God more 


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by sitting like avenues of sphinxes, and not like con¬ 
gregations of human beings with some remnants of 
emotion? Why should we allow our modern culture 
to altogether usurp the functions of the heart? Why 
should our religion, with even a large amount of 
intellectuality in it, become so stiff, staid, formal, 
and uncommonly solemn? It has got to that pass 
now that repression of the feelings has been carried 
so far, in most churches, that the good, pious old- 
timers are positively uncomfortable. There are 
many services that are “Faultily faultless, icily 
regular, splendidly null.’ ’ 

We are not unaware of the plea for decency, 
order, solemnity, reverence, and believe in it all. 
We must be proper; but we must not be too dread¬ 
fully proper. We must not carry our propriety to 
the verge of impropriety. If some good brother’s 
feelings surge up within him under the preacher’s 
fervent presentation of the gospel truth, and he is 
dying to shout a little and very mildly, we must not 
frown upon him and bid him choke it down. We 
know what can be said about the brother of former 
days who was all the time saying “Amen” in season 
and out of season, when it was absurd as well as 
when it was applicable, falling into a meaningless 
habit of repetition. We do not especially want him 
back again, particularly if he were very noisy; but 
reaction from him ought not to be allowed to swing 
to the other extreme of being the “dumb dogs” of 
whom our fathers used to talk. 

Let us have a few more of the “Amens” of the 
fathers; not vociferated loudly enough to imperil the 
roof, but uttered gratefully and quietly by reverent 
and appreciative lips, while the moistened eye pro- 


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DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


claims the melted heart. Why not? Who would 
be hurt by it? What terrible thing would happen? 
It would, rather, do everybody good. It would, as 
we have seen it, electrify the congregation and fuse 
the emotions of thousands of hearts into one deep 
and tender feeling. We remember a sermon we 
were once preaching when a theological student. A 
big, good-humored, portly brother—he proved to be 
the Sunday school superintendent—with a face like 
the rising sun, saw that we were “laboring.” 
Suddenly he lifted an unctuous “Amen” somewhere 
from the depths of his capacious form. We gave a 
perceptible start, the audience smiled, but the sermon 
immediately limbered itself out, and that “Amen” 
saved the day. 

In another charge in the Far West there would 
be, occasionally, instead of the traditional Amen, the 
clapping of hands and cries of “Yes, that’s so!” 
“That’s true.” We do not altogether recommend 
such responses, but would almost prefer them to the 
dead-and-alive manner of apathetic frigidity that 
has come in the present day to inflict our churches 
and to put them in the strait-jacket of oppressive 
formality. We certainly have no delight in a reli¬ 
gious pandemonium and are not pleading for any 
Bedlamism in our services. But let us have a little 
more spontaneity and freedom. Let us bring back 
at least a little section of the “Amen Corner.’’ Why 
should the Salvationists, or the Protestant Epis¬ 
copalians with their prayer book, have a monopoly 
on the responses ? Let there be some such assurance 
as this given to devout worshipers: Brother, sister, 
would you like to say “Amen!” or “Hallelujah!” 
once in a while when the minister is preaching so 


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glowingly about Christ and his great salvation? 
Would you be grateful if you could be allowed to say 
it even in a subdued and eminently respectable way? 
Do you feel sometimes that, if you don’t let it out, 
somehow you will run the danger of apoplexy or 
asphyxia. Well, out with it then! Out with it! 
Never mind what they think or say. Don’t go 
around looking so apologetic and “ sat-down-upon. ” 
Claim your rights in the house of God and take the 
liberty of a child of the Father. But exercise reason 
and common sense; say “Amen!” only when there’s 
really something to say amen to; don’t split the 
people’s ears; don’t over-indulge yourself nor abuse 
your privilege; and we hardly think the official 
board, in even the most aristocratic church, will 
venture to come around and tell you to keep still, or 
threaten to turn you out. They will get to liking it 
and doing it themselves, and the preacher will bless 
you. 

Concerning the emotion generally associated with 
revivals, we believe that the late Dr. John Watson 
(Ian Maclaren) spoke the right and sensible word 
when he was talking about the great Welsh revival: 
“Many object to revivals because of the splutter of 
sentiment with which they are associated. No doubt 
there are extravagances, but was a good thing to be 
condemned wholesale because of that? In revivals 
there may be much to criticize, but if there emerged a 
number who came home to God and lived holy lives, 
then God be thanked for revivals.” 

Not only has there been a too great elimination of 
emotion from our religion, too sweeping a decree 
against its expression, but also there seems to be 
some timidity about seeking for the deeper expe- 


152 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


riences of grace, the true saintliness of Christian 
character, which surely it is the Christianas highest 
privilege to know and enjoy. But let us not identify 
saintliness with any of its mere external settings. 
The Freeman’s Journal (Roman Catholic) of New 
York city says: “Why should the Methodists call 
any of their churches by saints’ names? None of the 
saints were Methodists, and the Methodists don’t 
believe in saints.” 

We have not learned either that Saint Matthew, 
or Saint Mark, or Saint Luke, or Saint John, or 
Saint Paul was a Roman Catholic; and we have 
never been able to discover any of the distinctive 
marks of Roman Catholicism—such as the papacy 
and its infallibility—in any of their writings. We 
scarcely think it is true that Methodists do not 
believe in saints, real saints, having plenty of the 
right kind of sanctity. But she has been so busy 
with their production that she has hardly had 
time as yet to catalogue them and issue them 
their halos. 

We are quite willing to admit that there have been 
numerous men and women in the Roman Catholic 
Church who have lived truly saintly lives. Indeed, 
we rather think that, while there are not a few who 
are now included in the list whose claim to the dis¬ 
tinction may be considered somewhat shadowy, and 
whose enrollment among the saints by official act 
was accomplished by some sort of politico-ecclesi¬ 
astical “influence,” there have been many thousands 
who have exhibited marked saintliness of character, 
but who, somehow, have missed being canonized. 

And it is the same with all the other churches. A 
vast number of thoroughly consecrated men and 


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women—humble and unheralded here—have their 
names now written in heaven on the rolls of the 
General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn. The 
kind of saints that we want to-day is not of the 
monastic type of the past, with cowl and tonsured 
head. Even such a sublime “Imitation of Christ” 
as Thomas a Kempis has given must he superseded 
by an “Imitation” which shall be lived out in the 
open, and be manifested, not so exclusively in 
ecstatic prayer and contemplation, as in the actual 
reproduction of the character and deeds of our 
Master in daily living and helpfulness. Instead of 
robes and aureoles, our saints may appear in sack 
coats and trousers; instead of nimbuses, wear derby 
hats; instead of floating on clouds, be walking the 
business streets. But, all the same, in their conscien¬ 
tiousness, integrity, love of God and man, as proven 
by their piety and obedience, sympathy and philan¬ 
thropy, they are just as good saints as ever trod the 
planet. 

What is a saint? and what is saintliness? are ques¬ 
tions which are not often raised in this practical 
twentieth century. Professor James tells us that the 
professional sainthood of former times does not 
satisfy us to-day. To-day helpfulness in general 
human affairs is deemed an essential element of 
worth of character, and service of man is regarded 
as the service of God. He tells us that in the life of 
saints, technically so called, extravagance arose 
because the spiritual faculties were strong with a 
relatively weak intellect. Unbalanced devoutness 
became fanaticism. Only masterful and aggressive 
characters, however, became fanatic; in gentle char¬ 
acters, with intense devoutness and feeble intellect, 


154 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


there was imaginative absorption in the love of God, 
to the exclusion of all practical human interests. 
Between science, idealism, and democracy there has 
grown the need of a different conception of God. 

Why should we, as Protestants, think that the list 
of saints is confined to those canonized by the 
Church? Why should we associate saintliness with 
effeminate features and upturned eyes? Does not 
every pastor know plenty of kindhearted, helpful 
women in his church who are just as saintly as any 
of the Cecelias, Catharines, Helenas, Lucias, or 
Sophias, to whom has been given the official prefix 
“Saint”? He knows too a number of men of integ¬ 
rity and purity, leading lives of righteousness and 
serviceableness, who are entitled to be denominated 
“Saint” quite as much as any Asaph, Augustine, 
Anthony, Bartholomew, Bernard, Martin, Nicolas, 
Michael, Sebastian, or Vincent of the past. Nay, 
their lives may be even sweeter, broader, Christlier 
than those of the old-time worthies. We do not write 
in order to detract from the reputation for goodness, 
which was most probably deserved, of any man or 
woman of the past whose name is now held in special 
and worshipful reverence. We only contend that we 
can never know how many are the heads that have 
the unseen halos around them. But God knows— 
the Lord knoweth them that are his. With all our 
heart we celebrate All Saints 7 Day. 

Professor Coe protests that the only touchstone of 
Christian life must be love to God and love to fellow 
men, and that this life is not primarily a state of 
feeling, but a state of will, an attitude of mind. He 
thinks more than justice has been done to the melan¬ 
cholic or sentimental temperament, which is intro- 


POWER IN THE INNER LIFE 


155 


spective, values the future more than the present, 
and weighs everything by standards drawn from 
ideals that master the feelings. The man of action, 
the choleric man, as he calls him, who is nervous, 
prompt, intense, looking without rather than within, 
valuing the present as well as the future; the man of 
deliberation, with phlegmatic temperament, whose 
prevailing impulse is toward slow effectiveness— 
these, he contends, have not had the attention paid 
them that their real saintliness deserves. Tradi¬ 
tional sainthood has rested its claims almost entirely 
upon ecstatic states of feeling, and the business man 
of to-day is not very sentimental. If to be a saint it 
is necessary to have visions and moods and weep¬ 
ings, or roll in billows of triumphant joy, or feel the 
utter hollowness of all secular life and the general 
good-for-nothingness of the world, he must admit 
right off that he is not “ in it.’ ’ He believes that the 
world is a pretty good world—God’s world and not 
the devil’s—and he is working practically and all the 
time to try to make it, in the home, in business, and 
in politics, a continuously bettering world. He 
indulges in few rhapsodies and he cannot always 
sing like a seraph or pray like an apostle. But he 
supports the preacher, he keeps the church going, 
he gives to many charities, he is upright in business, 
he always pays his bills, he votes for clean men and 
measures, he tries to carry out even-handed justice 
and to observe the Golden Rule, he strives for 
temperance and purity in social life, ( for efficiency 
and honesty in political affairs, and he, somehow, 
feels that worthily “filling one’s station in life, in 
the fear of God, is a spiritual exercise.” 

All this representation is deserving of respect and 


156 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


can be said without any suspicion of contempt for or 
derision of the men and women of rapturous feeling 
and ecstatic visions. We do not seek to invalidate 
their title deeds to sainthood. We only ask that they 
open up their circle and let in their 4 ‘practical” 
brother, give him the right hand of fellowship, and 
discern the nimbus as clearly around him as them. 
And, in his turn, we would that the “practical” 
brother might try to supplement his hard-headed¬ 
ness with something more of tender-heartedness, 
while his more meditative and introspective fellow 
Christian shall seek to add a larger actual efficiency 
in the doing of things for the Church and the com¬ 
munity to his inner life. 

The Rev. Dr. Allen, of London, has written these 
words to the young Christians beginning their fol¬ 
lowing of Christ: ‘ 4 Many of us young Christians find 
it difficult to give to recreation its due, and no more 
than its due, proportion of time and thought; but 
there is a temptation far more subtile besetting some 
of us: worship is so apt to be crowded out by what 
we call ‘service’; the multiplication of Christian 
activities is a standing menace to devotional habits; 
guard very jealously against letting personal expe¬ 
rience of the things of God run shallow; your influ¬ 
ence on others is bound to suffer; ‘Man’s busiest 
day’s not worth God’s minute.’ Here, surely, is 
the open secret of a life that uses to the best advan¬ 
tage every day and hour. Only by the enthronement 
of Christ in the heart shall we learn to make and 
carry out the best program of life. The schoolroom 
may seem a chaos when the teacher is away, but how 
quickly every boy finds his place when the teacher 
returns! The disciples may dispute by the way 


POWER IN THE INNER LIFE 


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which of them shall be greatest, but when He stands 
among them they hold their peace. So let us seek 
‘first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; 
and all these things ’—all this needed guidance as to 
life’s duties—‘shall be added unto’ us.” 

The psalmist’s brave and reverent prayer to 
Jehovah was: 

Search me, O God, and know my heart: 

Try me, and know my thoughts. 

Has it not occurred to many that, seemingly, there is 
comparatively little heart-searching in these days of 
strenuousness, when there is not a quiet hour in the 
twenty-four for serious reflection? And to this gen¬ 
eration, as it reads Bunyan in his “Holy War” or 
“Pilgrim’s Progress,” if it ever does, how strained 
must his feeling and language seem! We have 
learned to take religion more complacently, if not 
more lightly. As we read the biographies of White- 
field and of John and Charles Wesley, what intensity 
of spiritual apprehension and longing is there 
betrayed! The same thing may be said of the emi¬ 
nent divines of the Puritan period. How these men 
agonized after God and his salvation and peace! 
It is possibly true that, in some sense, their natures 
were unduly and unhealthfully exercised; but, on the 
other hand, do we not get along with the whole 
matter of our spiritual condition in altogether too 
comfortable a way? Sometimes it might seem that 
we are but too little concerned about it, are not at 
all anxious, and rather take it easily for granted 
that our place in the kingdom of heaven is so abso¬ 
lutely secure that we do not need to particularly 
trouble ourselves. Law’s “Serious Call” is not 
popular reading. It may be feared that intensity of 


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DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


feeling is too little ours; such intensity as Charles 
Wesley expresses: 

If to the right or left I stray, 

That moment, Lord, reprove; 

And let me weep my life away 
For having grieved thy love. 

No true religion can end with repentance, though 
it must always begin with it. Eegeneration must 
follow contrition. Learning to do well must come 
immediately after ceasing to do evil. The “Thou- 
shall-nots ’ ’ of the Ten Commandments must be con¬ 
verted into the “Thou shalts” of Christ’s law of 
love to God and neighbor. Renunciation of sin must 
lead to the energetic practice of virtue. Abstaining 
from every indulgence which can not be taken in the 
name of the Lord is not the whole of Christian prac¬ 
tice—is but the preparation for active participation 
in everything which can be done in the name of the 
Lord. The best method of overcoming evil is by 
crowding it out with more vigorous goodness—by 
* i the expulsive power of a new affection. ’ ’ The best 
tactics in resisting the devil is to passionately serve 
the Lord. The “doing without” of asceticism will 
not make fully developed sainthood. A holy char¬ 
acter must be the product of aggressive effort. 
John’s baptism with water was the symbol of the 
washing away of the sins he denounced. But One 
greater than he came after him, who baptized in the 
Holy Spirit and in fire. His baptism took the for¬ 
given man and filled him with divine power, enthusi¬ 
asm for truth and right, an ardor for all righteous¬ 
ness. This is the positive Christianity we must seek 
—a zeal and purposefulness to be something and do 
something for Christ and his brethren. 


POWER IN THE INNER LIFE 


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We once received a letter from a young lady in a 
certain college where she is pursuing one of the 
regularly prescribed courses of study in the Bible 
(a most interesting and profitable course it is too). 
She writes us: “We have been spending some time 
on the history of the kings of Israel and Judah. I 
like the prophets very well, but those old kings make 
me tired. They nearly all followed in the way of 
Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin, and it becomes 
slightly monotonous.’ ’ 

Yes, there is a dreadful monotony about sin. We 
thought of it one day when, taking up the daily 
paper, we saw the same old, thousand-times-repeated 
grist of stories about divorce, drunkenness, lust, and 
murder. Even suicide has become so frequent that 
people are bored in reading about the same old 
morphine, carbolic acid, or strychnine “route.’’ 
There is a fearful sameness and tiresomeness about 
the records of “drunks ,’ 9 “assaults,’’ and “hold¬ 
ups,’ 9 and we should think the judges of the police 
courts would go mad with the daily recurrence of the 
same old list of “horribles.” 

Now, if one wants to do something original, some¬ 
thing which has a flavor of individuality to it, let him 
make out a course of pure and noble daily conduct 
far above that of the average crowd, and then work 
to it day by day. 

The fine lines of trees along the avenues of many 
of our cities are dying in large numbers, much to the 
regret of the citizens. Many causes are assigned: 
too close paving with flagstones and asphalt, so that 
moisture is prevented from reaching the roots; the 
poisoning of the soil by sewer gas and seepage; the 
influence of electric currents in wires of telegraph, 


160 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


telephone, and traction systems; blighting by exha¬ 
lations from manufactories of chemicals and similar 
compounds; the clogging of the pores of the leaves 
by layers of smoke and soft-coal soot. Perhaps all 
of these conspire together against the health and life 
of the tree. 

In the spiritual realm our souls sutler for reasons 
which have their analogy to the above-mentioned 
injurious influences. The materialism of our age— 
making the surface of our spiritual susceptibilities 
as hard as the beaten and traveled wayside upon 
which the sower’s seed fell in vain, preventing the 
dews and showers of grace percolating to the 
depths; the noxious vapors of sin—the social 
atmosphere surcharged with septic misasmas and 
toxic effluvias; the mephitic emanations of public 
and private vice; the currents of worldliness which 
shock and deaden; the stoppage and suffocation of 
the pores of the soul by the black deposits from the 
smokestacks of the nether pit—all these combine to 
destroy the vitality of the inner life. 

On a certain Sunday we listened to a sweet-voiced 
singer as she beautifully rendered that fine old-time 
hymn, beginning, 

Jesus, and shall it ever be, 

A mortal man ashamed of thee? 

Ashamed of thee, whom angels praise. 

Whose glories shine through endless days? 

As she sang the suggestion came to us that, at first 
thought, nothing could be remoter to-day, as a temp¬ 
tation, than to be ashamed of Jesus. For it is not 
with him now as it was when, in the days of his 
humiliation, he was comparatively unknown, ac¬ 
cepted for no more than a Galilaean and a carpenter- 


POWER IN THE INNER LIFE 


161 


rabbi, preaching new and unwelcome doctrines, and 
arraigning the nation and the religious authorities 
for their sins. Then, when all the leaders, including 
the chief priests and the Pharisees, were against 
him, it might be distinctly unpopular as well as 
dangerous to take his side. The natural impulse 
might be, in any emergency, to disclaim him, Peter- 
like, and say, “I never knew him.” 

But all that has changed now. The true character 
and glory of Jesus are discerned and almost univer¬ 
sally admitted. His nohility, the elevation of his 
teaching, his love for the race, his heroism and 
martyrdom—are not these the themes of eulogy, 
not only with professed Christians and orthodox 
believers, but with men of all stripes of belief ? That 
man is regarded to-day as a freak, like the raving 
anarchist, who speaks of Jesus abusively or deri¬ 
sively. Whereas once it was popular to execrate 
him, it is now popular to venerate him. Even the 
unbelieving defamer of the Church will enwreath the 
name of Jesus with oratorical encomiums. 

But it may be, even in such a time, Jesus may still 
have occasion to utter his warning—“If any man be 
ashamed of me and my words—” It is not a crown 
of thorns but a garland of roses that this age is 
pressing on his brow. And yet it is not pretty 
compliments, or high-flown flatteries, or brilliant 
“appreciations,” or lavishment of word-painting in 
Ciceronian rhetoric that Jesus wants. To many who 
would thus bedeck him, he might well say: “Depart 
from me! I never knew you, ye workers of iniquity. ’ 9 
His test is simpler and severer—“If ye love me, 
keep my commandments,” “He that heareth these 
words of mine and doeth them. ’ 9 He cares more for 


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DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


plain obedience than he does for the sacrifice of the 
lips in laudation. It is easy to praise and magnify 
Jesus, but harder, day by day, in things little and 
large—in the home, the office, business dealings, 
social relationships, civic duties—to keep to the 
strict letter of his teaching. If one is in what is 
called “society,” or in the ways of business and 
politics, it is even yet scarcely popular to adhere 
closely and uncompromisingly to Jesus’s prescrip¬ 
tions. It may be feared that too many of us, on 
occasions, by our deeds if not by our words, show 
that, even while we laud Jesus with our tongues, we 
are really ashamed of him. 

What possibilities are there in the religion of 
Jesus that many of us have never yet sounded! 
What timid souls we are who dare not explore the 
land that lies before us! Weighed down by our im¬ 
perfections, we hear Saint John declaring that “it is 
not yet made manifest what we shall be”; and, 
burdened with a sense that we have much spiritual 
territory yet to conquer—that we have not ‘ ‘ already 
attained,” that we are not “already made perfect” 
—we see Saint Paul, in like case, “forgetting the 
things which are behind, and stretching forward to 
the things which are before,” pressing on “toward 
the goal.” Such glorious testimonies ought to 
hearten us wonderfully. They are the most keenly 
sensible of defects who perceive the grandeur of the 
Infinite Ideal—the goal of perfection in Christ. 

It would be a poor life whose ideals were not ever¬ 
more in advance of it. To the reflecting man two 
ideas are constantly enlarging before his mind—the 
mystery, the possibilities of his own being, and the 
inexhaustibility of the divine nature that forever 


POWER IN THE INNER LIFE 163 

beckons him forward with the inspiring command, 
14 Be perfect, as I am perfect.” It is no wonder 
that the lofty ambition of so many souls expresses 
itself in the prayerful song, 4 ‘Nearer, My God, to 
Thee.” The more we know, the more we find there 
is to know; the more we experience, the more there 
is to experience. One of the best definitions of man 
is that he is a being of progress; not, like the bee, 
the spider, the beaver, forever repeating himself. 
The optimistic character of the Hebrew Scriptures, 
with its Golden Age, its Messianic kingdom, not in 
the past, but in some resplendent future, has made it 
the Sacred Book of all progressive nations. William 
von Humboldt writes: “Time is the wheel-track in 
which we roll on toward eternity, which conducts us 
to the Incomprehensible; there is a perfecting power 
connected with its progress, and this operates upon 
us the more beneficially when we duly estimate it, 
listen to its voice, and do not waste it, but regard it 
as the highest finite good in which all finite things 
are resolved.” 

It is well to recognize the irrevocable nature of our 
deeds. What we write we write. In the Book of 
Judgment no dotting of an “i,” no crossing of a “t” 
is insignificant. Judas bewails in vain the awful fact 
that he has betrayed his Lord. Sometimes one act 
of folly will blast the reputation of a whole lifetime. 
To youth and manhood alike opportunities come. 
If they are not seized, they, at least, are lost forever, 
whatever other opportunities may come. Esau’s 
exceeding bitter cry rings through the ages. If we 
neglect the supreme duties of life, “then the sad 
angels shall wail their miserere chant over us: ‘ Thou 
hast gambled with thy fate, played with thy oppor- 


164 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


trinity, and now thy house is left unto thee deso¬ 
late/ ” 

Nevertheless, while this solemn lesson is borne in 
on us, while life is granted us, there is chance of ever 
fresh endeavor. If we say, despairingly, that “it 
might have been” are the saddest “of all sad words 
of tongue or pen,” we must still remember that 
always in the future 4 ‘ some sweet hope lies, deeply 
buried from human eyes.” It is our noble preroga¬ 
tive to outgrow and forget the past and to live under 
the inspiration of the better time to come. All pos¬ 
sible triumphs lie before us. God has given men 
indomitable spirits that are not to be crushed by a 
single failure or many. It is for us to pluck success 
from the very jaws of defeat. 

But the backward look which becomes a habit 
unduly prolonged, a reflection on misspent days and 
wasted energies, is a species of debilitating misan¬ 
thropy. To brood too constantly over the mistakes 
of life is to withdraw our powers from the actual 
work in hand. Sufficient, and not more than suffi¬ 
cient, unto each day are talent, vitality, and activity. 
We grow weak and disheartened if we are all 
the time taking our past poverty of achievement 
as a measure of our present or future possibili¬ 
ties. Had Paul fixed his mind, in some mono¬ 
mania, upon the events of his past—his part in 
the stoning of Stephen and in laying waste the 
Church, committing men and women to prison, 
breathing threatening and slaughter—he might have 
dragged out his life dismally enough and have fallen 
into a chronic state of morbidity. Or, had he dwelt 
too complacently on his triumphs, he might have 
rested in an easy self-satisfaction and simply marked 


POWER IN THE INNER LIFE 


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time without going forward. But, in his old age, 
after all of his missionary journeys, after all of his 
persecutions, trials, perils, and sufferings; after 
founding his churches and writing his epistles, after 
the unutterable revelations which came to him when 
caught up unto Paradise, we find him talking like 
the strenuous racer of *‘ pressing on.” He was evi¬ 
dently convinced that no man was immortal until he 
died. He believed that the work of faith would not 
be done till he obtained his crown. How many stu¬ 
dents, mechanics, and professional men achieve a 
certain mediocre excellence and then stop! They 
never outdo their first efforts, and they go on for¬ 
ever repeating themselves. How many there are 
whose experience in conversion was their high-water 
mark! 

Saint Paul was a very ambitious man; but his 
ambition took a turn which must indeed seem pecu¬ 
liar, almost absurd, to those whose efforts are all 
concentrated on little more than money-getting. He 
conceived that God had designed him from his birth 
for some high office and destiny. God had arrested 
him on the road to Damascus to recall him to its 
pursuit. He could not realize all the magnitude and 
significance of this destiny, this call heavenward. 
He had not yet secured its full and perfected bless¬ 
ing. He was, however, constantly struggling toward 
a fuller and more intimate and personal knowledge 
of Christ and the spiritual interpretation of his 
death and resurrection. He would be conscious in 
his soul of their inspiration and power. He aspired 
to the ‘ ‘ full-grown man—the measure of the stature 
of the fullness of Christ”—that degree of develop¬ 
ment of which to be found in Christ is the standard. 


166 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


He felt that this implied constant growth, and that 
ceasing to grow meant stagnation and death. He 
knew that absolute perfection was a goal infinitely 
far off, and that God, in exhorting men to be perfect, 
even as he is perfect, had set before them an en¬ 
deavor for all eternity. But, like the racer with 
tense muscles, inflated nostrils, head thrown back, 
every nerve stretching forward, he was not looking 
back over the course behind, but fixing his eyes on 
what lay in front—the winning-post and the prize— 
and bounding toward it. 

To him life meant struggle—something more than 
a dream or an ecstasy. If one would enter in he must 
strive. Not to the idle, listless, apathetic should the 
spiritual rewards come, the doors of opportunity for 
influence be opened, the treasures of grace be uncov¬ 
ered, but only to those who ask, knock, and seek. 
The devil will flee only as he is resisted. Life must be 
dominated by a supreme purpose—its music con¬ 
trolled by a major chord. Interested in all the rich 
activities of existence, every man must, nevertheless, 
give himself to one work; not to riding a little hobby, 
but to carrying out the main end of his creation, to 
perfecting character, to blessing the world, even as 
Christ did. So Paul would not dwell on his past 
failures and sins—his old formality in religion, his 
wrath against and persecution of the Christians. 
He would redeem that evil past by intensity of good 
action in the present and future. His ambition, 
determination, and wisdom ought to be inspirational 
to us each. Our being made perfect is far in the dis¬ 
tance. None of us yet realizes the full purpose and 
design of his being as it lay in the mind of the Father 
when he created him. Man here is only in his begin- 


POWER IN THE INNER LIFE 


167 


nings, the object even now in his imperfection and 
sin of the divine solicitude and care, but it doth not 
yet appear what he shall be. The scatfolding is not 
yet taken down from the building. The Infinite 
Artist has but made his preliminary sketch of man, 
and put a few colors on the palette. Man’s ideals 
are always in advance of him, like the horizon that 
lifts as he goes toward it. The more he knows, the 
more he perceives there is to know. The larger the 
circle of light, the larger the circumference of the 
surrounding darkness. The better he grows, the 
vaster the moralities and spiritualities that stretch 
above him. Perfection is like space that, without 
bound or limit, paralyzes the imagination. “End 
there is none.” 

Two ideas are constantly enlarging in the vision 
of the spiritually-minded man—the conception of 
God and of himself. The most holy are those who 
are the most keenly sensible of their own defects, and 
who most clearly perceive the grandeur of what is 
still unattained. They thank God that he has put 
before them no finite, easily reached mark of devel¬ 
opment, but a “flying goal” ever ahead of them 
throughout the ages of ages—even the perfect nature 
of himself. They are filled with a Divine discontent. 
They are happy only as they are progressing. They 
do not expect to gain heaven at a single bound. But 
they are forever “toiling upward in the night.” 

Thinking of mistakes and failures disposes to de¬ 
spondency. But, while sad memories ought to warn 
and teach, they ought not to crush. Others have 
marred their lives, too—Jacob, Moses, David, Peter, 
and John—but they did not allow their old-time sins 
to forever blast their careers. The past was irrevo- 


168 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


cable. But, by repentance and faith, they made the 
years remaining atone for those misspent, and 
snatched victory out of the very jaws of defeat. 
Time may be worse than wasted in lamenting the 
waste of time. If early education has been neglected, 
it is folly to perpetually and idly bemoan the fact 
when every day offers its new chances of instruction. 
If one has not entered on the life of religious service, 
let him do it now. If there has been former fail¬ 
ure to help others philanthropically or religiously, 
let the good work be begun, were it even in the last 
year of life. 4 4 And shall we ever live at this poor 
dying rate?” No! a thousand times, no! Let the 
higher life go on at a better rate from this very day. 
“The strenuous life” is good, but not simply in 
business. The identical tremendous earnestness, 
directness, and forth-rightness that are put into daily 
work should be poured into religion. 

Doubtless the confession of the Prayer Book is 
true of all of us: “We have done those things we 
ought not to have done, and we have left undone 
those things we ought to have done.” In the language 
of the Sunday school hymn, the mistakes of our 
lives have been many, and the sins of our lives have 
been more. Yet the healthy, bracing spirit of Chris¬ 
tianity is seen in that sorrow and contrition work for 
life. Repentant, forgiven, laying aside every weight, 
a man may leave his sins and his lamentable nonper¬ 
formance all behind him, and, with lightened heart 
and quickened conscience and perfected trust, leap 
into some glorious work for the Master. 

If our religion is not a growth, it is a stagnation. 
A modern scientist has given us a scientific fact when 
he says: “ It is the law of nature that he who will not 


POWER IN THE INNER LIFE 


169 


work must rot; that he who will not strive will be 
enslaved; that he who will not seek increase shall 
impersonate the horror of degradation. ’ ’ When a 
tree in the forest becomes bark-bound, underneath 
the bark may be found all manner of vermin. Some 
lives are like Nebraskan rivers—drained off in the 
arid wastes. Others narrow themselves to form 
a deeper current. Jesus was no “Galilaean 
dreamer. ” No man in New York or Chicago to-day 
is more intense, practical, and efficient than was he. 
Glorious strife is forever preferable to ignominious 
inactivity. Every existence, if it would be engran- 
dized, must have in it a supreme purposefulness and 
idealistic endeavor. 

And were this life the utmost span. 

The only end and aim of man. 

Better the toil of fields like these 
Than waking dream and slothful ease. 

Life must be something more than an ecstasy. It 
must be a struggle, a warfare. Whatever our spirit¬ 
ual attainments may have been, there is infinitely 
more to be experienced yet. It is with the soul-life 
as with the sea. We cannot take in the whole 
expanse of the ocean with the sweep of our eye: 

Nay, com© up hither. From this wave-washed mound 
Unto the farthest flood-brine look with me— 

Then reach on with thy thought till it he drowned. 

Miles and miles distant though the last line be, 

And though thy soul sail leagues and leagues beyond— 
Still, leagues beyond these leagues, there is more sea. 

The heroic and venturesome spirit of an Ulysses 
we must transfer to our spiritual explorations. 
Those splendid lines of Tennyson which strive to 
interpret the undaunted mood of the old navigator 


170 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


ought to be ours as we contemplate the possibilities 
of Christian experience: 

Much have I seen and known: cities of men 
And manners, climates, councils, government. 

Yet all experience is an arch where-through 
Gleams that untraveled world, whose margin fades 
Forever and forever when I move. 

How dull it is to pause, to make an end. 

To rust unburnished, not to shine in use! 

As though to breathe were life. Life piled on life 
Were all too little, and of one to me 
Little remains; but every hour is saved 
From that eternal silence, something more, 

A bringer of new things; and vile it were 
For some three suns to store and hoard myself, 

And this gray spirit yearning in desire 
To follow knowledge, like a sinking star. 

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. 

Old age hath yet his honor and his toil; 

Death closes all; but something ere the end. 

Some work of noble note may yet be done 
Not unbecoming men who strive with gods. 

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho' 

We are not now that strength which in old days 
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are, 

One equal temper of heroic hearts. 

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. 


CHAPTER VII 

POWER FOR THE LlFE OF SERVICE 

At one time there was a decided tendency on the 
part of critics of Christianity to dispose of the phe¬ 
nomena of Christian experience with a contemptuous 
sneer against ‘ ‘ superstition. ’’ That attitude has been 
abandoned for the most part. It was perceived that 
it was, to say the least, utterly unscientific. It is 
the province of science to discover, observe, and col¬ 
late facts everywhere, and arrive at the underlying 
philosophy and explanation. No facts, it was admit¬ 
ted, which existed anywhere could be ignored. To 
sneer at a fact was a piece of absurdity. If one 
would be a loyal follower of Bacon, and a scientist in 
deed and in truth in whom there is no guile, he must 
candidly and faithfully face the evidence for every 
fact in the universe. He must not allow his preju¬ 
dices, or any general scheme of preconceived 
theories, to obscure his vision or afflict him with any 
mental strabismus whatever. Even if he thinks there 
are peculiar difficulties in the way of accepting mir¬ 
acles and the supernatural works and contentions of 
Christianity, he must not, as he, a scientific man, 
values the clear-sightedness and candor without 
which he cannot discern nor interpret the great facts 
of the universe, try to dispose of them with a sniff 
and an interrogation point. He must not stop his 
ears to the testimony of thousands and thousands 
of people through many generations as to the 
validity of the claims of Christ and his religion. 

171 


172 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


Now, Christianity, on its historical side, is pre¬ 
eminently a faith founded on facts of a superlative 
degree of importance. It is not based on mere philo¬ 
sophic speculations and abstractions. And, on its 
practical side, it is a religion of experience. Saint 
John declares that he makes known simply what he 
had seen and heard and known of the Word of Life. 
And the same note of reality sounds forth from the 
lips of the confessors of all the Christian centuries: 

What we have felt and seen 
With confidence we tell. 

And publish to the sons of men 
The signs infallible. 

Such a mass of testimony cannot be whistled down 
the wind. It would have to be admitted before any 
court as first-hand evidence, and it is one of the 
things which must be investigated by the “ labora¬ 
tory method. ’ ’ There has been a disposition on the 
part of some professors of the mathematical and 
material sciences to laugh theology out of court as 
being no science at all, in any true sense, but only 
a mass of conjectures and speculations and purely 
metaphysical reasonings, resting on unproved 
assumptions. But it is now seen that that view can 
no longer be held. Theology is a true science and 
is built as much upon a solid substratum of facts as 
is the science of biology or geology. The facts of 
the spiritual realm are as evident, real, palpable, and 
incontrovertible as are those of the material realm. 
Are stars and strata, and fossils and protoplasms 
and brain-cells and blood corpuscles facts? So are 
God and Christ and the Bible and the soul and sal¬ 
vation and moral character and spiritual perception, 
vision, idealism, and attainment in holiness—all, all 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 


173 


indisputable and irrefutable facts which science 
must reckon with, explain if she can, but not explain 
away. 

It is the holy character which is the best disproof 
of all naturalistic theories. Against true holiness 
in heart and life there can be no successful argument 
waged. There is no higher ideal of Christian attain¬ 
ment which can possibly be imagined than to be 
entirely sanctified, and this ideal must never be 
allowed to drop out of sight and be forgotten. Theo¬ 
logians, preachers, evangelists, and various types of 
believers may differ as to the means and ways, the 
manner and time of becoming sanctified. Differing 
conceptions of what sanctification is in itself have 
prevailed. Sometimes controversy upon even such a 
high and holy theme as this has become acrimonious 
and the Church has been divided and embittered by 
the strife. Of all themes upon which men, who may 
avow the possession of this supreme grace, or 
declare that they are earnestly seeking it, should 
grow wrathful and intolerantly disputatious, this 
would seem to be the last. But controversy must not 
be allowed to drive out from the Church or from the 
minds of Christians either the name of sanctification, 
or holiness, or the grace itself. It behooves, more¬ 
over, those who claim to have been specially blessed, 
to give evidence of it in the larger beauty and serv¬ 
iceableness of their lives, especially in their com¬ 
pleter devotion to their church life. The pastor and 
their fellow members ought to find in them the most 
willing cooperation, liberality, joyous participation 
in every good work. 

We are glad to think that this frequently happens, 
but we have known cases of the opposite kind. We 


174 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


call to mind a good, hard-working brother of aver¬ 
age intelligence and fine Christian development. 
His prayers were spiritual, his testimonies modest 
and helpful. But, returning one summer from a 
camp meeting in a distant State, it was our surprise 
to find that the new and remarkable religious expe¬ 
rience of which he boasted had turned him into a cen¬ 
sor and berater of his brethren and a general scold. 
He was the only one who was in the right condition 
and everybody else was wrong! All of his old-time 
sweetness was gone and he made himself intolerably 
disagreeable by his splenetic religiousness and vitu¬ 
perative piety. All his good, as far as that church 
was concerned, was spoiled, and it was a pity. He 
seemed set in his egoistic consciousness of superi¬ 
ority. 

On the other hand, we have known those who pro¬ 
fessed to be sanctified, and showed forth such gentle¬ 
ness, lovableness, and self-control, and were so use¬ 
ful in all Christian labor, that no one ever questioned 
their sanctification nor cared to challenge their 
theories. Our religion must be deep-rooted. Before 
it can be made of the highest service to the world we 
must ‘ ‘ take time to be holy.’ 1 Christianity is a grand 
system of renovation. Its Christ proclaims, 
1 ‘ Behold, I make all things new. ’’ Its disciples have 
a new name written upon the white stone given them. 
They are to be new creatures in Christ Jesus. They 
are to walk in newness of life and serve in newness 
of spirit. There is to be a new humanity which is to 
put on the new man that, after God, has been created 
in righteousness and holiness of the truth—the new 
man that is being renewed unto knowledge after the 
image of Him who created him. For neither circum- 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 


175 


cision is anything, nor nncircnmcision, but a new 
creature. The old leaven must be purged out that 
there may be a lump leavened with the new leaven. 

There are to be new heavens and a new earth 
wherein dwelleth righteousness. The former things 
shall not be remembered nor come into mind. The 
Holy City, New Jerusalem, has come down out of 
heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned 
for her husband. “Into this holy city we have come. 
In dark hours a light is always shining upon us; in 
our weakness and insecurity a 4 wall great and high! 
protects us. In our poverty and helplessness we 
receive the assurance of angel watchers and fellow¬ 
ship with the Church from the beginning of the 
world.’ ’ 

There is to be the constant revelation of new truth. 
The new wine is to be put into new bottles. A new 
commandment the Master gives us. We enter into 
the holy place by a new and living way. Christ is 
the Mediator of a new covenant. A new spirit will 
be put within us, and the redeemed sing this wonder¬ 
ful new song unto Him who is the unfolder and 
director of the destinies of men throughout all the 
unknown future: “Worthy art thou to take the book, 
and to open the seals thereof: For thou wast slain, 
and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of 
every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and 
madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and 
priests.” 

There are three very searching questions which 
Methodist bishops ask of the preachers seeking 
admission into the Conferences in full connection. 
They are these: “Are you going on to perfection? 
Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this 


176 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


life? Are you earnestly striving after it?” Eacli 
bishop is careful to explain that the perfection here 
spoken of is not to be taken in an absolute sense, 
as implying freedom from all errors of judgment 
and a state of entire sinlessness, but in the specific 
and limited sense of its own phraseology—“ perfect 
in love.” And unless we are to think that certain 
forms of evil must necessarily become chronic in the 
human soul, to look forward to having the mind 
freed from hatreds, grudges, suspicions, unworthy 
imputations; to anticipate having it filled with be¬ 
nevolence, sympathy, cordial regard and love for 
others, is certainly not an unreasonable prospect. 
And, reasonable as it is, such an ideal is, beyond 
question, abundantly worth 4 ‘striving after” with 
all the persistence of one’s consecrated powers. 
The flying goal must be persistently pursued. 

And this is not only an ideal for ministers. Why 
for them alone? Its magnetism ought to be felt by 
the laity as well. It is a conception that ought to 
have great attractiveness and stimulation for all 
Christian people. It ought to catch their thought 
and hold their vision and faith up to its great possi¬ 
bilities. Everyone should be able to answer posi¬ 
tively in the affirmative to those great questions: 
“Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this 
life? Are you earnestly striving after it?” 

“It is time,” say the directors of the American 
Society of Religious Education , 4 ‘ to cease the doubt¬ 
ing and the quibbling in which some have indulged, 
and to learn how the Bible may be most effectively 
used in winning souls to Christ, in promoting a 
higher type of piety in the churches, and in overcom¬ 
ing the vice and crime so common among us; these 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 177 

questions are paramount, they can be answered only 
by devout and scholarly men who believe in Jesus 
Christ as the Saviour of sinners/* Christ said, 
“The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit 
and they are life . 19 Some of the utterances of Glad¬ 
stone, Arnold, Simpson, and Finney are worth pon¬ 
dering over now: 

“We talk about questions of the hour. There is 
but one question—how to bring the truths of God’s 
Word into vital contact with the mind and heart of 
all classes of the people . 9 9 

< ‘ To give a man education is to make him love God, 
to have faith in Christ, and to open his heart to every 
impulse of the Holy Spirit.” 

“You may store the mind with Bible truths, but 
they will be of comparatively little worth until vital¬ 
ized by the Holy Spirit . 9 9 

“The Word of God came by the Spirit of God 
through holy men. It may be interpreted only by 
the Spirit to men who seek to be holy.” 

The imitation of Jesus is mainly a practical thing. 
The life of devotion and obedience to him need not 
be involved with abstruse and perplexing questions 
in metaphysical theology. Who he was and what he 
was in the depths of his nature, the world, after two 
thousand years of investigation, has not been able 
to tell exhaustively. If anyone shall say that it is 
too much of a mystery to believe in such a birth, such 
a life, such a resurrection, a sufficient reply is that 
the universe is crowded with mystery. We cannot 
explain creation, or existence, or matter, or mind, or 
life—nothing, indeed, ultimately. We cannot prove 
by reason apart from faith who we are ourselves, 
what we are, whence we came, whither we go. What 


178 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


is the meaning of the worlds and the totality of 
things, who can say? Even the “flower in the cran¬ 
nied wall” defies all our systems of thought. 

We cannot understand Jesus fully and funda¬ 
mentally, nor explain him as we explain others. He 
does not ask us to do it, nor make our salvation de¬ 
pend on our doing it. Jesus says not ‘ ‘ Explain me, , ’ 
but ‘ ‘ Follow me. ’’ His religion is conduct—a prac¬ 
tical program and not a merely philosophical dis¬ 
quisition. Its path into truth is by way of obedience. 
He that is willing to do the will of God and honestly 
makes the attempt shall, somehow, comprehend the 
teaching of the Prophet of Nazareth. 

Professor John M. Tyler was once discussing the 
kind of ministers the Church needs. He declared 
that ‘‘it is Great Heart, not Swelled Head, who kills 
Giant Despair.” He represented the tired wor¬ 
shiper in the pew, worn with the temptations and 
struggles of the week, as saying to his minister: 
“We do not come to you each Sabbath morning pri¬ 
marily or chiefly to hear your opinions on art or 
literature, science or philosophy. We ask you: Is 
God on the field f Will he help me ? Have you any 
order from headquarters, and word of warning or 
encouragement, of uplift and inspiration, from him ? 
What we want and must have is, as the old Puritan 
said, ‘the best of all courages, a beam from the 
Almighty.’ Can you give it to us! Have you any 
message beginning with ‘Thus saith the Lord’? We 
do not care much for anybody’s opinions or hypoth¬ 
eses; academic questions do not interest us; even 
culture is not of chief importance. We are hungry 
for facts about our relation to God and his kingdom, 
to our own life, and to our fellow men. To these we 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 


179 


will listen. Every man and woman in this world is 
in a life-and-death grapple with sin and with the 
misery bred of sin. We feel the bitterness of the 
straggle and know that we can enter heaven only 
on our shields. Can you help us ?’ ’ 

We have all heard about the good German who 
was being examined by the preacher and elders be¬ 
fore being admitted to the Church. He was asked 
about regeneration, atonement, inspiration, fore¬ 
ordination, and, many another theological concep¬ 
tion and definition. He listened to the interroga¬ 
tions in hopeless perplexity and could return no 
answer. He seemed incomprehensibly dull and too 
unintelligent to be called a Christian believer. At 
last the kind-hearted preacher said in his despair, 
“I will ask one more simple question and we will 
see if we can get a reply at last.” And, turning to 
the bewildered brother, he said , 16 Tell us now, do you 
love the Lord Jesus Christ?” Instantly the worthy 
German’s face underwent a wonderful transforma¬ 
tion. It changed from stupidity to light and intelli¬ 
gence, as he joyfully exclaimed: “Ach! yah! yah! 
Ich liebe mein Jesus! Ich leibe mein Jesus!” To 
the credit of the examiners it was pronounced suffi¬ 
cient and he was admitted. 

We were reminded of this incident when reading 
some delightful sketches in a little volume of short 
stories called “Dwellers in the Mist.” The author, 
Norman Maclean, has much of Ian Maclaren’s fac¬ 
ulty of transfiguring common life with pathos. The 
stories, laid among the Scotch folk of the Hebrides, 
turn largely upon the rigidity of their stiff Calvin- 
istic creed. Their minister, Dr. Macleod, had sac¬ 
rificed everything to give himself to them. He was 


180 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


a man of ra£e scholarship, piety, and preaching 
ability, but he did not care to waste his time and 
degrade his pulpit by entering on useless theological 
controversies. Consequently, the stricter sort con¬ 
cluded that “he was not sound.” “What right had 
he to introduce any poetry save the holy psalms into 
the pulpit?” One of his elders accused him of not 
believing in the doctrine of election. “It is long 
since I waited to hear you preach on it, but never a 
word you uttered. This was the truth on which we 
were nurtured, and I tell you the people .will not 
endure it unless you speak out on the evils of the 
day. ’ ’ 

So they abandoned him in a body and left him to 
his bare church walls. They could not deny that he 
was the soul of gentleness and kindness—minister¬ 
ing to the sick and dying, comforting the afflicted, 
loaning money, nursing the plague-stricken ? ‘‘ But, ’ ’ 
they obstinately argued, “what is the good of a man 
being kind when he is unsound in the vital principles 
of the faith? What is the good of his being kind 
when he has proved a traitor to the truth, and has 
shown himself in his true character as a false 
prophet?” 

One poor old lady came before this ultra-orthodox 
session to be catechized before being admitted to the 
yearly communion—a rite made so dreadful that of 
two thousand worshipers only thirty souls ventured 
to go forward to the table. “You know,” said 
Eachann Donn, who was the spokesman of his fellow 
elders, “that our rule is that the communicants must 
know their Catechism. Now, tell us, what is God?” 
“God is love; God is my Father,” she answered. 
“But that is not the answer in the Catechism, and 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 


181 


that is what we want,” said Eachann. “What is 
justification by faith?” “I know only,” she an¬ 
swered, “that I trust wholly in the Lord Jesus and 
that I love him . 9 9 

So Eachann went on with his questions, and Mairi 
answered in her own way, but “not according to the 
book,” and, consequently, she was rejected until she 
should “get some one to teach her the Catechism.” 

Then she rose to go out. At the door she turned 
and said,‘ ‘ Eachann Donn, you can shut me out from 
the communion, but, thank God, you cannot shut me 
out of heaven! ’ 9 

The old lady died shortly after, with the words 
whispered to her, “And God shall wipe away all 
tears from their eyes,” to which she murmured in 
reply, “He will not shut me out.” For he had said, 
“Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” 

But with all the simplicity that there is in the 
religion of Christ, its true inwardness cannot be 
known without a definite surrender and a sustained 
culture. Edward Everett Hale, Jr., professor of 
English in Union College, and son of the distin¬ 
guished Unitarian preacher, Edward Everett Hale, 
whose conversion was brought about by the preach¬ 
ing of Dr. W. J. Dawson, has made a confession of 
his faith and given a recital of the steps that led to 
it, which, we think, will best illustrate what we mean 
by this “surrender.” He was led to self-examina¬ 
tion and prayer by the sermons of Dr. Dawson, and 
the change that came to him is evidently to be 
accounted for on no other basis but the work of the 
Spirit in his heart. His concern for art, literature, 
and nature was subordinated to a greater love for 
others. He came to the conviction, he said, that he 


182 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


was a sinner, and resolved to surrender and take 
up the spiritual ministry of Christ. The call of the 
cross, he saw, is not merely a call to forgiveness, but 
a call to love and work for Christ. He claims that he 
knows by personal experience that the way of the 
cross is through prayer, and this quotation from his 
address will be read with supreme interest: “The 
call of Christ I conceive to be that time in a man’s 
life when an impulse comes to surrender everything 
for Christ. We all come to a place in our lives when 
we feel that there is somehing lacking in our life, 
and Christ speaks to us in that still small voice, and 
if we accept him, he brings us into the new life. 
That is what is meant by hearing the call and giving 
ourselves to Christ. Personally I had no expecta¬ 
tion that the call of Christ would come to me. I 
think most of you here who know me personally will 
agree with me that I was not the man you would 
have expected to confess Christ here in this meeting¬ 
house. If you will pardon these personal references, 
I will give a few reasons why. I am of New England 
birth and a New Englander is not apt to be carried 
away by anything emotional. I am a man of books, 
of an intellectual life, associated constantly with 
students, and such men do not take such steps under 
enthusiasm. Most of you are aware of the fact that 
I was a Unitarian and that they are known as a sect 
which lays more stress on reason and intellect than 
on the heart. Who would have thought that I would 
have been led to accept Christ in a revival meeting 
in a Methodist church ?” 

His students speak of Professor Hale’s new sym¬ 
pathy for and interest in them. On “watch night” 
he was in the altar, at the altar service, joining in 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 183 

prayer for the “seekers’’ and thoroughly enjoying 
the opportunity. 

The early Christian fathers had a most significant 
saying, “ Aut Christus aut nihil ”—‘ 4 Either Christ or 
nothing. ’’ It answered to the modern motto, ‘ ‘ Out- 
and-out for Jesus.’’ A youth may thinly he can bal¬ 
ance the claims of the world and of Christ and steer 
successfully a convenient middle course. But that is 
because he has not yet put himself decidedly into 
either current. The two streams may seem to run 
parallel for a little way, hut in middle life they will 
have diverged widely. No man can serve two mas¬ 
ters ; but one master he is bound to serve. It is the 
foolishest of delusions for men to think they can 
stand in between Christ and the world, and nicely 
adjust their respective demands upon them, to the 
detriment of neither and the satisfaction of both. 
Inevitably they shall own their allegiance, in a very 
short time to one or the other. And those nominal 
Christians and easy-going church members, who 
think they can get along comfortably on the terms of 
some such complacent compromise, will end by being 
more and more nominal and artificial in their Chris¬ 
tian life, and more and more actual and natural in 
their unreligious worldliness. “Aut Christus aut 
nihil ” 

In some countries it is the lion or the tiger which 
is the chief foe to human life and there seems to he 
some dignity and glory in warring against him. But 
it may be doubted whether lions, tigers, wild ele¬ 
phants, crocodiles or boa constrictors ever did as 
much damage as the Lilliputians at the other end of 
creation’s scale. The infinitesimal microbes, whose 
presence in the human system brings typhoid or scar- 


184 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


let fever, diphtheria or lockjaw, are monsters much 
more to be dreaded. Just now most of the evils of 
malaria are being laid to mosquitoes and flies and 
the edict for their extermination has gone forth. 
Conventions are called to consider how best to anni¬ 
hilate the pestiferous little boll-weavil, which is 
destroying cotton crops by wholesale. And then 
there are the plagues of the chinch bugs, of the white 
ants, of the Hessian flies, of the army worms, of the 
locusts, of the teredos, of the potato bugs, of the 
San Jose scale, and many others. It is the insignifi¬ 
cant and microscopical hordes that threaten the cita¬ 
dels of life most alarmingly. 

It is so, likewise, in the spiritual realm. We are 
not slain by leviathans and behemoths, and the sus¬ 
tenance for our best being is not cut off from us by 
the ravages of leonine temptations and elephantine 
sins. It is the little foxes that destroy the vineyards. 
It is the seemingly contemptible, almost unheeded 
and unworthy of notice, minute and petty sins and 
defections from duty that bring disease and death 
into the soul—that destroy the spirit’s fairest har¬ 
vests. Their ruin can be stayed only by the anti¬ 
septics and antitoxins of grace. 

Once, after a prolonged period of effort in which 
extra engagements piled themselves onto regular 
work, we had to consult a specialist. Stomach and 
liver were certainly behaving in anything but a nice 
way. Well, what did the specialist direct? Only 
what we knew very well before, and had heard a 
score of times—carefulness as to diet, plenty of 
sleep, fresh air, sunshine, and the absolute necessity 
of regular exercise. “But, Doctor,” we expostu¬ 
lated, “you are laying down an impractical program. 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 185 

It is impossible to follow it out. Where can we find 
time for so much exercise? It’s entirely out of the 
question.’ 9 

The doctor calmly looked at us and said: “You 
must make the time. You say you cannot, but you 
must. Other things must* be given up if it comes to 
that. Where the necessity for a thing imperatively 
exists, there is no alternative. If you want to live 
and be well, you must exercise. ,, And we couldn’t 
get him to alter his prescription. He simply said: 
“You must, and that’s all there is to it.” We are 
convinced that he is absolutely right, even when we 
find it the hardest to follow out the advice. 

But we fell to thinking that this same advice might 
well be given to men so absorbed in the rushing busi¬ 
ness of to-day that they feel that they can give no 
attention to their soul-interests. Just as no man 
can neglect his health and the proper care of his 
body with impunity, just as he cannot escape disease 
unless he bathes, eats rationally, sleeps and exer¬ 
cises sufficiently, just so he cannot go on utterly for¬ 
getful of all the needs of his immortal soul, and not 
pay the natural penalty in the derangement of his 
best and highest life. He may protest, with full and 
frank earnestness, that what his pastor tells him is 
an impossible program. He may allow that he knows 
he ought to do it and yet allege that it is utterly 
precluded in such a busy life as his. But the answer 
to him is the same as the physician gave to us. There 
is no option in the matter. Time must be simply 
and resolutely taken and set apart for definite spirit¬ 
ual ends. The soul must really have some attention 
paid to it; must get its proper nourishment; must 
have its quiet hours for reflection, prayer, and wor- 


186 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


ship; must be exercised in godliness. Otherwise 
there are inevitable troubles ahead. Over against 
every excuse of “I can’t” stands the dogmatic and 
uncompromising ‘ 4 You must ! 9 9 

Sometimes, while seated in a passenger coach wait¬ 
ing for the train to start, who has not been treated 
to a puzzling deception by thinking his train in a 
backward motion when, in fact, a train on an adjoin¬ 
ing track has started slowly forward? At such times 
it is quite impossible to disillusionize oneself, and 
not without casting his gaze to the opposite window 
can it be done successfully. 

There is a spiritual analogy just here, and al¬ 
though it would not be proper to say that we were 
going backward merely because the neighboring 
train was passing us, we wish to make the point that 
failure to advance in the Christian life is practically 
“backsliding”; and although it is mere imagination 
in the matter of the trains, it is a grievous fact in 
the higher realm. The usual conception of a “back¬ 
slider” is of one who actually falls from grace, who 
turns his back upon Christ and betakes himself down 
the road of sin. But we think the same result, prac¬ 
tically speaking, will be attained by merely failing 
to advance. Truth is ever on the march; ideas are 
growing; the experiences of the world and the indi¬ 
vidual believer are constantly enlarging, and he who 
is not marching abreast of the on-moving procession 
is not only seemingly, but in the most real sense, “los¬ 
ing out.” Many who bear the name Christian, and 
would expostulate if otherwise classed, are un¬ 
consciously deteriorating by this unwillingness to 
step up. And there they are, slowly, but surely, 
bankrupting, because they are disinclined to invest 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 187 

what God gave them at conversion. We are to 
occupy until he comes; we are to be up and doing 
every day; we have got to advance. 

For an hour or more, one day, the piano in our 
home kept repeating and repeating the same refrain, 
until, by constant repetition, it seemed to din itself 
into our brain as if it would stay there forever. The 
young lady was at her morning ‘ ‘ practice.’ 9 She was 
painstaking and conscientious, and she kept at the ap¬ 
pointed task faithfully, assiduously drumming out 
the few ever-recurring bars. She had not been ‘ ‘ tak¬ 
ing” very long, consequently the “piece” was of the 
simpler order. And we noted again and again the 
same hesitancies over certain notes, but there was 
just a little improvement each time. However, we 
do not wonder that youthful pupils often protest 
against the “grind” of the task, and express them¬ 
selves vigorously to the effect that they “just hate 
practicing.” Nevertheless, there has been no other 
way recently discovered by which, leaving out the 
drudgery, one may become a musician. Our young 
lady must keep at her “sonatinas” until the keys 
almost play themselves, despite monotony and weari¬ 
ness. 

Our lives are like the keyboards before which we 
must sit, hour after hour, through the years, trying 
to play the score which the Great Teacher has set 
us. Over and over and over again we have to do 
our “practicing” on the same task or very similar 
ones. We go on blundering at the same places until, 
at last, we get over the difficulties and can pass on 
to something new and a little finer and harder. Often 
we rebel against the sameness and repetitiousness of 
our work, which, to our thinking, has so little in it 


188 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


that it would hardly seem worth doing at all. But 
still we have to keep at it, and are not excused until 
our performance is pronounced so satisfactory that 
we can be advanced. So we go from one assignment 
to another, taking on constantly increasing responsi¬ 
bilities and obligations of larger dimensions. And 
at the end of life there will come, in some other 
world, let us hope, selections of grander and yet 
grander music for us to master. But there is no way 
that we know by which the exercises can be skipped 
and we yet become skilled musicians at the keyboard 
of life. We must stick to our ‘ ‘ pieces ’ ’ until we have 
thoroughly learned them. Chief of all our acquisi¬ 
tions must be the possession of a pure heart of sin¬ 
cere love and the “mind that was in Christ.” 

Some one has said that the chief “heresy ’’ known 
in the Bible is blacksliding and wickedness. It is 
very suggestive. To our own thinking the worst 
heresy is not that of the head, but of the heart—not 
in tangled-up thinking, but in the wrong tempers of 
the soul. The worst heresy in regard to Christ is 
not Docetism, Arianism, Sabellianism, or any such 
allied “ism,” but the malignant disposition of an 
unloving heart. The error of the mind may coexist 
with a pure life and a sincere conscience; it may 
even prove not to be an error at all, but an anticipa¬ 
tion of a truth that future generations will recognize. 
But the evil condition and inclination of the heart 
is a vital departure from the faith. 

The real Antichrist, who is the “liar,” as Saint 
John says, and “denieth that Jesus is the Christ,” 
and “confesseth not Jesus,” is not some argumenta¬ 
tive Socinian, or theoretical atheist, or metaphysical 
agnostic, but the man with hate in his breast instead 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 


189 


of love. For the confession of Christ does not lie 
fundamentally in creeds and orthodoxies, but in a 
life which responds to the thirteenth chapter of First 
Corinthians, and which manifests itself in good 
Samaritanism. The sum total of orthodoxy, accord¬ 
ing to Christ, the summing up of “the law and the 
prophets,’’ is love to God and love to man, or, since 
both grow from one root, simply love. To be with¬ 
out love, to harbor malicious and hateful feelings 
and sentiments toward others, to speak the bitter 
word, or to write the mean, sarcastic, revengeful 
letter—this is to deny Christ. The denial of the di¬ 
vinity of Jesus by the lips of some Unitarian, who, 
like Channing, Emerson, or Martineau, may be lead¬ 
ing conspicuously a beautiful, spiritual life—what 
is that in comparison with the practical denial of 
Christ in the character and acts of the backbiter, 
the scorner and detractor of men, the whisperer, the 
scandal-mongerer, the venomous human viper with 
poison in his tongue ? 

To say this is not to imply that the differences 
between evangelical faith and rationalistic concep¬ 
tions are matters of small import and amount" to 
little or nothing. It is not to be interpreted, even 
incidentally, as an apology for speculative hetero¬ 
doxy. But it is to insist that the most real, essential 
confession of him, of which Christ speaks, is not with 
the mouth merely, not in the repetition of any Nicene 
or Athanasian creeds, but in the possession of a 
heart of charity—of a life filled with love and therein 
having the best evidence that there has been a pass¬ 
ing “out of death into life.” 

It will do us all good to read again and again the 
searching words of Saint John, the most intimate 


190 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


revealer of the deepest thought of Jesus. Does he 
dwell, as a proof of heresy, mostly on warped and 
erroneous intellectualism in the sphere of theology? 
Hear this: “If we say that we have fellowship with 
him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the 
truth. ... He that saith he abideth in him ought 
himself also to walk even as he walked. . . . He 
that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother, 
is in the darkness even until now. He that loveth his 
brother abideth in the light. ... In this the chil¬ 
dren of God are manifest, and the children of the 
devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of 
God, neither he that loveth not his brother. . . . 

Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye 
know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in 
him. ... He that loveth not knoweth not God; 
for God is love.” 

And Jesus himself spoke some words that go to 
the very root of all religion and bear directly on this 
discussion: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, 
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but 
he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven. 
Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, did 
we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast 
out demons, and by thy name do many mighty works ? 
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: 
depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” 

Have there been very many in the history of the 
world who have persecuted so-called schismatics for 
heresy who were ever entirely free from the impu¬ 
tation of anger, malignity, personal feeling, and 
hatred? All the worst attributes of humanity have 
been exhibited in such controversies. Historians tell 
us that it is difficult to conceive how the passions of 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 


191 


mankind could be roused to such fury as they were 
over the questions debated in the Council of Nicsea. 
Thus did holy men endeavor to exterminate heresy 
and arrive at the truth. 

It is a curious, but still pertinent question to ask 
which was the greater sinner—Servetus, who denied 
the doctrine of the Trinity, or Calvin, who instigated 
his arrest, condemnation, and burning at the stake. 
It is a pity that there could not have been some exe¬ 
cutions at the stake, in order to even things up, of 
men flagrantly guilty of heresy of the heart. A 
recent writer on the Inquisition in Spain tells us 
about the character of the higher ecclesiastics and 
lower clergy—men stained by licentiousness and 
every lawless passion, dissolute, ignorant, fighting 
duels and committing perjuries and homicides. 
“The ecclesiastical body,” he says, “was wholly 
secularized, and only to be distinguished from the 
laity by the sacred functions which rendered its vices 
more abhorrent, by the immunities which fostered 
and stimulated those vices, and by the intolerance 
which, blind to all aberrations of morals, proclaimed 
the stake to be the only fitting punishment for aber¬ 
ration in the faith; while powerless to reform itself, 
it yet had influence enough to educate the people up 
to its standard of orthodoxy in the ruthless persecu¬ 
tion of all whom it pleased to designate as enemies 
of Christ .* 1 

But that spirit did not die with the Inquisition. 
There are some modern heresy hunters who, though 
they may not be open to such charges against the 
purity of their lives, are still under condemnation 
for the personal and persecuting tempers that they 
carry into their crusades. Every church contains evi- 


192 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


dence of this fearful incongruity. There have been 
known ministers of our own time who, with reference 
to those from whom they disagreed theologically, 
could express themselves most uncharitably and cen¬ 
soriously, and who, on occasion, could write the most 
vitriolic epistles concerning those whom they ac¬ 
cused as “enemies of the Bible” and of the true 
religion. They called their mean passion ‘ 4 contend¬ 
ing earnestly for the faith once delivered to the 
saints,” and, perfectly certain that their “doxy” 
was orthodoxy, arrogantly arraigned all dissenters 
before their judgment seat of wrath. Doubtless 
heretics must be dealt with, particularly if they go 
into the business of sowing dissension by inveighing 
against* the doctrines of the Church to whose tenets 
they have subscribed, but he who brings the charges 
must examine himself scrupulously as to purity of 
intention and Christlikeness of disposition. 

We have known very earnest church members who, 
letting their “angry passions rise,” and becoming 
personal and bitter in their zeal to prosecute others 
for card-playing, theater-going, and dancing, were 
utterly oblivious that they themselves came into con¬ 
demnation by the same provision of their Church’s 
Discipline which, under the general head of ‘ ‘ impru¬ 
dent and unchristian conduct,” prohibits “indulg¬ 
ing in sinful tempers or words,” as well as “taking 
such amusements as are obviously of misleading or 
questionable moral tendency.” 

Theologians tell us that the Satan of Job was not 
the vulgar horned and split-hoof imp of mediaeval 
times. He mingled freely with the sons of God, but 
he was the Celestial Cynic and chronic Critic and 
Kicker—the Diabolos —the “hurler against,” as the 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 


19S 


etymology implies, the one who “thrust through,’’ 
defamed, or “informed against”—the calumniator 
and slanderer, the “accuser of his brethren.” And 
that is the very meanest kind of a business that any¬ 
one in the whole universe can engage in. The devil 
is the Great Heretic, and, unfortunately, he is lead¬ 
ing vast numbers astray into his supreme heresy and 
heterodoxy, and the vast pity of it is that many of 
them are imagining all the while that they are the 
very pillars and exemplars of orthodoxy. There¬ 
fore our contention for the pure heart of love is not 
in vain. Having that, there must be the element of 
strenuosity brought prominently into the religious 
life. 

If anyone thinks it is quite profane in us to take 
any parables from the athletic world, we must refer 
him to Brother Paul, who did not scruple, once and 
again, to find illustrations in the footraces and box¬ 
ing matches of this time. If he were living now, we 
think he might discover some useful parallel in all 
the athletic contests prevalent, that he might apply 
to earnestness in religion. If he were an American 
living to-day, we imagine he would not scruple to 
rejoice over the contests of the university track and 
field teams. He would hold up the discipline, dash, 
and pluck of those athletes as a good thing to emu¬ 
late in our religious life. 

Of a certain college boat race it was said that the 
losing crews were well trained, and they rowed scien¬ 
tifically enough, but they lacked “ginger,” “snap,” 
“go.” They had stroke, watermanship, but train¬ 
ing, form, and all that could not compete against 
training and form with a “plus” to it—a something 
more, a vital dynamic. As one writer describes it: 


194 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


“This fourth dimension—call it ‘snap,’ ‘vim/ ‘life,’ 
or what you will—cannot be trained into a crew 
which does not possess it temperamentally any more 
than you can train ten-second ‘ speed ’ into a man 
who is not a born sprinter.” 

It is so in all life, religious and other. Mere ma¬ 
chine perfection in morals and virtue will never pro¬ 
duce such results as definite training plus inner life, 
inspiration, the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of 
power. And this strenuous religion must have its 
exhibition and vindication in everyday living and 
acting. Jesus never had any set of ideas labeled 
“religious.” Religion was for him a life. To him 
the religious and the secular were one. To bring 
God into everyday life makes every day a sacred day 
and every life a divine life. We are all longing for 
big arenas for action, and regretting, Naamanlike, 
that we are not told to “do some great thing.” The 
“trivial round, the common task,” seem to us alto¬ 
gether too trivial and common. Men in the past 
imagined they must come before Jehovah with thou¬ 
sands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil, and their 
first-born sons for sacrifice. They, and we too, have 
difficulty in realizing how simple is the divine pre¬ 
scription and requirement: “ to do justly, and to love 
kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God.” 

It is said that Jesus was an idealist, living in the 
invisible world with his Father. But, as a youth, 
after his heart had been strangely stirred in the 
temple, he went back to be obedient to his parents, 
and to the work of the carpenter shop. From a brief 
stay in the Mount of Transfiguration he and his dis¬ 
ciples return to take up their usual ministration to 
the afflicted and their regular teaching. Paul was 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 195 

in the third heaven for an ecstatic hour or two, hut 
his ordinary labors on his missionary tours con¬ 
sumed most of his time. Some of the early Chris¬ 
tians courted martyrdom. But Christ avoided death 
as long as he was able, and, when he came to die, he 
died simply, without adding grandiose or spectacu¬ 
lar features, praying for his enemies, talking to a 
robber, comforting his mother, confessing that he 
was thirsty, commending himself briefly to his 
Father. After the awful crucifixion itself, Peter, in 
sensible fashion, said, “I go a-fishing.” 

In conversion, there may be transports, yet, 
afterward, life will have to go on in commonplace 
ways and with the usual duties. We will not prob¬ 
ably be called upon to die for Christ. No such dra¬ 
matic tests will come to us. Our consecration must 
find its field, not in ecstasies, but in everyday living 
in the household, in business, in social intercourse. 
We must read carefully “The Vision of Sir Laun- 
fal,” and mark its deep lesson. Few of us can imi¬ 
tate the heroes of missions—Carey, Judson, Taylor, 
Thoburn—but in our own local circles we can offer 
our little toward the world’s evangelization. Few 
can preach like Paul, Savonarola, Beecher, Spur¬ 
geon, Brooks, Parker, but each can do his work faith¬ 
fully and speak his honest word of faith. To few 
will come such an opportunity as came to Luther, the 
reformer, but all can strive for the betterment of 
their local communities and contend for pure morals 
in society and spirituality in the Church. Not every 
man can be a Parkhurst in New York, but he can be 
a good citizen in his village. If one may not be a 
supreme court judge—a Marshall, a Story, or a 
Chase—he may perchance be a good police judge. 


196 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


If he may not be a Grant or Lee, he may be a brave 
private soldier, dying for his country, seeking 
neither fame nor place. If one may not be a Jenner, 
a Pasteur, or a Koch, he may be a faithful country 
doctor. If one may not be a Florence Nightingale 
or a Clara Barton, she may be equally heroic as an 
inconspicuous deaconess or hospital nurse. If one 
may not be an Esther, a Joan of Arc, a Catharine, 
an Elizabeth, or a Victoria, she may be a loving and 
patient mother, bearing the petty vexations, neither 
scolding nor fretting, ministering to the little wants 
of small children, making the home a paradise for 
them and her husband. 

If one cannot be a president or even a presidential 
candidate, he can go to the polls and cast a consci¬ 
entious vote, though there be nothing melodramatic 
in it. If one cannot be a great educator—an Arnold, 
a Hopkins, a McCosh, a Mary Lyon, or an Alice 
Freeman—he or she can be a teacher in the public 
schools, doing unnoticed but indispensable work. 
And public school scholars can serve Christ by studi¬ 
ousness and order, by supporting discipline, by 
pleasing both teachers and parents. We do not need 
to go to Thermopylae, or Marathon, or Waterloo, or 
Gettysburg for examples of faithfulness and valor. 
Every day railroad engineers, foremen, policemen, 
foundrymen, workers in the slums, wives in poverty- 
stricken homes show equal heroism. 

We want a working religion and a workaday reli¬ 
gion—a religion which is for the forge, the furnace, 
the machine room, the roundhouse, the salt pits, the 
coal mine, the office building, and the kitchen; which 
does not dwell on the heights but on the lowlands; 
which is not for intellectual and spiritual giants, but 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 


197 


just for common people; which makes men ‘ ‘ faith¬ 
ful over a few things”; which is not something for 
Sunday dress parade alone, or mere pious decency 
and respectability; not an appendage to life, but life 
itself. We want a faith that will make faithful; a 
religion that will make men attentive to the minor 
morals—courteous, cheerful, and sowing sunshine, 
showing kindness and doing little favors, being con¬ 
siderate in speech and without cynicism or gossip, 
keeping their temper, being prompt in engagements. 
We want a religion that will pay debts; that will 
practice honesty in business life; that will treat em¬ 
ployees with justice and consideration; that will 
render employers full and faithful work without 
grudging or scamping; that will keep bank cashiers 
true; office holders patriotic and reliable; citizens 
interested in the purity of politics and the noblest 
ideals of the country; husbands and wives in love 
with each other all the time; children obedient to 
parents; brothers and sisters manifesting in the 
home gentleness and mutual self-sacrifice for each 
other; young men pure, clean-mouthed, self-con- 
trolled; capitalists and laborers respecting and lov¬ 
ing each other as men. Such a religion is real, vital, 
effective. It is the religion of the Christ who de¬ 
mands mercy rather than sacrifice. 

The hymn of Maltbie Babcock, 

Be strong! 

We are not here to play, to dream, to drift; 

We have hard work to do and loads to lift. 

Shun not the struggle, face it, ’tis God’s gift, 

is sure to be more and more popular with the passing 
days. It is very inspiring to hear a congregation of 
men sing those robust lines of “ Faith of our fath- 


198 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


ers”; and when they proclaim in song, “We will be 
true to thee till death,” and referring to “the 
fathers,” they declare 

“How sweet would be their children’s fate. 

If they, like them, could die for thee!” 

who shall accuse them of simply indulging in weak 
sentimentality? Is there not a soldierly Christian 
virtue which exists to-day as certainly as it ever 
existed before, and which would prove as valiant in 
defense of the faith, or in suffering for, it as ever 
the fathers were? 

We once heard Doctor van Dyke preach a sermon 
before the students of Yale University on “The 
Things Worth While,” and at the conclusion those 
hundreds of young men, with their deep voices, rolled 
out that magnificent hymn, “A charge to keep I 
have, a God to glorify.” And when they came to 
the second verse, and sang, 

“To serve the present age. 

My calling to fulfill; 

O, may it all my powers engage 
To do my Master’s will!’’ 

it seemed to us one of the grandest expressions of 
self-dedication to great ends that we had ever wit¬ 
nessed, and our emotions were touched to the utter¬ 
most. 

We believe that there is a striking tendency in 
the religion of our day toward an emphasis on man¬ 
liness. There is a demand for the presentation of 
a virile Christ, who, while possessing the passive 
virtues of trust, patience, and resignation, shall also 
manifest what were evidently likewise in his nature, 
the heroic qualities which appeal particularly to men, 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 199 

and which are needed to nerve strugglers in the 
midst of the world’s terrific battle for every high 
endeavor and noble striving. We want not only the 
Christ of the Beatitudes—the Christ who blessed 
little children and conversed with Mary and Martha 
—but also the Christ who drove out the buyers and 
sellers from the temple courts, who scorched the 
hypocritical Pharisees with the lightning of his 
wrath, who “witnessed a good confession before 
Pontius Pilate, ’ 9 and who died the Hero of the Ages 
upon his cross. 

Standing prominently before the world to-day as 
exhibiting this Christian manliness in his own per¬ 
son is the Bishop of London. He is known to his 
most intimate friends as “Chuckles.” He likes a 
game of tennis, golf, or cricket. He is a busy little 
fellow, putting in every hour of the day in doing 
good. He composes his sermons, it is said, on the 
“tupenny” tube, and his lunch often consists of a 
ham sandwich eaten on the top of a London ’bus. 
He is a young man, yet he has been highly honored. 
He is at the head of one of the greatest metropolitan 
dioceses in the world. He is an enthusiast in settle¬ 
ment work in the East End. He is the friend of rich 
and poor alike. Always happy, always busy, always 
up to some good deed, too occupied in the affairs of 
others to pay much attention to himself, he seems, 
somehow, to appeal to us as an ideal churchman. He 
is of the type of man that we would like to have more 
of in the ministry. Nothing bores him, he is always 
interested. There is nothing sensational about him. 
It is merely his personality that draws. Not only is 
the bishop thoroughly manly, but his religion is of 
a definitely practical type, and his labors indicate 


200 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


the kind of work which is cut out for Christians who 
would follow their Lord to-day. Speaking before 
Harvard, he said: ‘'I have chosen to speak to you on 
some great problems that confront us in our cities— 
problems that I have to face every day of my life. 
The first deadful problem of our city life is that it 
keeps growing every year. London is increasing 
one hundred thousand in population every year and 
nothing can stop the growth. In London we are 
already packed in like sardines in a box. One of the 
most appalling problems I have to face is this yearly 
influx of one hundred thousand human beings. Our 
country villages are fast disappearing. Then there 
is the appalling overcrowding which we have in Lon¬ 
don already. Often I see five or six children and a 
father and mother all living in a single room. An¬ 
other problem is the fearful mortality, especially 
among children, which is truly terrible. The death 
rate among children in the slum districts is often 
fifty-two in a thousand, and in healthy districts it 
averages only about eighteen in a thousand. At 
least half the children in London die needless 
deaths.’’ To the solution of these problems this 
good bishop is giving himself, heart and soul. And 
this is the sort of religion which the world is more 
and more clamoring for in this hour. 

We stood one day by the bier of a dear friend, 
once a parishioner, and attempted to conduct the 
funeral services. He had been a lifelong member of 
the Church. His attendance at public services was 
regular and constant, and he evidently enjoyed and 
profited by the worship and the sermon. He was a 
most intelligent discerner of the broader and deeper 
meanings of religion and of the spiritual significance 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 201 

of the Scriptures. He had filled many functions— 
journalist, business promoter, financier. In his busi¬ 
ness life he had displayed a strict integrity; in his 
journalistic career he had stood for the higher ideals 
as against sensational methods; as a politician, 
strenuously contending for his party convictions, he 
had in mind the good of the common people, and the 
prosperity, along ideal lines, of the country; in 
municipal affairs he had striven for the better con¬ 
ditions of civic life; as a banker he had devoted him¬ 
self to his calling, so as to insure for the institution 
intrusted to him no inconsiderable success. In his 
family life he carried a deep consecration to pure 
marital and fatherly love. When he died the press 
of the city spoke of him as a citizen who could be ill 
spared and whose presence would be greatly missed. 

We have spoken of him as a Christian. And he 
was undoubtedly such. But he did not possess what 
is called “the devotional temperament . 9 ’ He was 
reserved in his expressions as to experience. If we 
are to cling to the mediaeval and monastic idea of 
sainthood; if we are to think only of the fervid, pale, 
romantic, poetic, somewhat effeminate type as pre¬ 
eminently the “ religious, ’ ’ then our friend could not 
be included among them. There was little of the 
rhapsodical or ecstatic in his make-up. His eyes 
were fixed on the level of the day’s work instead of 
being rolled heavenward in seer-like adoration. He 
was not given to visions, but was a clear-sighted, 
level-headed man of firm convictions, who gave and 
took blows in the conflicts of life, but never hated 
his foeman. Shall we not have to revise our concep¬ 
tions of the marks of the truly religious so as to in¬ 
clude a multitude such as he—men immersed in the 


202 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


currents of business life, where they are doing the 
God-appointed work on which they have been sent, 
and where they are displaying all fidelity, honorable¬ 
ness, conscientiousness? Although they may have 
almost nothing of the distinguishing characteristics 
of the rapt visionary, as the old masters depicted 
them, they, too, are entitled truly to be enrolled 
among those who are 1 ‘ called to be saints . 9 9 

It is one of the good features of the altruism of 
our times, of all the philanthropic and missionary 
endeavor of our modern Church and Christianity, 
that it absorbs the thought so largely that good men 
and women have little time left to fuss and worry 
over themselves. They have little chance to grow 
morbidly introspective over the diagnosis of their 
own spiritual conditions. They do not doubtfully 
and interrogatively sing, 

“ ’Tis a point I long to know— 

Am I saved or am I no.” 

Even the question, as between Arminians and Cal¬ 
vinists, of “assurance of salvation” is heard 
debated comparatively little to-day. “It is not a 
good thing,” said a physician to us recently, “for a 
man to be taking his own pulse and feeling about 
the region of his heart to note its beatings.” 

We once heard of a worker in a downtown mission 
who was completely wrapped up in seeking to save 
the lost. “But how about your own soul?” asked a 
zealous friend. 4 ‘ I had almost forgotten I had one! ’ 9 
was the rather remarkable response. But who can 
think that, in this entire self-forgetfulness for the 
sake of others, there was any danger of his soul be¬ 
ing lost? He was pursuing the very best plan to 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 203 

insure his own salvation—being oblivious of himself 
personally and giving himself unreservedly for the 
reclamation of others. The words of Jesus, it seems 
to us, will bear a broader application than a restricted 
reference to the physical life when he said, “For 
whosoever would save his life shall lose it; and who¬ 
soever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s 
shall save it.” Such words as these rebuke all self¬ 
ish solicitude and overanxious self-thought, whether 
concerning the body or the soul. Let a man do his 
duty as a man—practice self-denial and goodness 
and benevolence—and leave the rest to God. 

Nearly fifty years ago this truth was well enun¬ 
ciated by Oliver Wendell Holmes in that weird and 
not over-pleasing tale, “Elsie Venner.” He wrote: 
“Can a man love his soul too well? Who, on the 
whole, constitute the nobler class of human beings— 
those who have lived mainly to make sure of their 
own personal welfare in another and future condi¬ 
tion of existence, or they who have worked with all 
their might for their race, for their country, for the 
advancement of the kingdom of God, and left all per¬ 
sonal arrangements concerning themselves to the 
sole charge of Him who made them and is respon¬ 
sible to himself for their safe keeping? Is an an¬ 
chorite who has worn the stone floor of his cell into 
basins with his knees bent in prayer any more ac¬ 
ceptable than the soldier who gives his life for the 
maintenance of any sacred right or truth, without 
thinking what will specially become of him in a world 
where there are two or three million colonists from 
this one planet to be cared for? These are grave 
questions, which must suggest themselves to those 
who know that there are many profoundly selfish 


204 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


persons who are sincerely devout and perpetually 
occupied with their own future, while there are 
others who are perfectly ready to sacrifice them¬ 
selves for any worthy object in this world, but are 
really too little occupied with their exclusive per¬ 
sonality to think so much as many do about what is 
to become of them in another.’’ 

Is there not enough for us all to do—enough 
responsibility laid on Christians living in a world of 
sin—for us all to be earnestly and practically at 
work and wasting no time over undue apprehensive¬ 
ness as to our salvation? 

Salt is good, but if salt loses its saltness, 
Wherewith will ye salt it? 

Have salt in yourselves 

And have peace with each other! 

These were the words spoken by Jesus to his little 
band of disciples after he had discovered that his 
nation as a whole, refusing to be a Messianic people, 
had definitely repudiated him. The disciples are 
thought of now by Jesus as the sole remaining me¬ 
dium for the realization of the Messianic hope. If 
they do not retain their grace, then there is no 
further hope for the world. What a tremendous 
responsibility is cast upon them! What unimagi¬ 
nable destinies of humanity in all future ages hang 
trembling on their faithfulness or defection! 

Christ’s solemn words of warning have been para¬ 
phrased by a recent writer in these sentences: “You 
are the preserving salt in a corrupted, dying world. 
If you yourselves are no longer salt, how can any¬ 
one season you? You are worthless. God can do 
nothing but cast you out to be trodden under men’s 
feet. You are the spiritual light of the world in dark- 


POWER FOR THE LIFE OF SERVICE 


205 


ness. A history of past civic achievement cannot 
be hidden. God set a city on a hill (Jerusalem). 
He meant it to light the world. Men do not light a 
candle and put it under a shade, but on a stand. It 
is the duty of those with a divine revelation to let 
it shine, that men, seeing the revelation made mani¬ 
fest by your good words, may glorify your Father 
which is in heaven.” 

Such a load of incomputable responsibility is laid 
upon Christians yet. If they fail, if they grow faith¬ 
less and formal, if the light in them becomes dark¬ 
ness, what, then, will be the fate of the world depend¬ 
ing on them for its salvation? The thought is solemn 
enough to arouse us all to redoubled consecration to 
the divine life. 


CHAPTER VIII 
Spirituality the Urgent Need 

A recent writer in one of onr religious papers 
says: “The average church member in these days 
feels very little responsibility resting upon him for 
personal work for individual souls. The most are 
satisfied simply with church attendance and contri¬ 
butions. This lack of individual effort is one of the 
weakest spots in our modern Christianity.” An 
editor, speaking of the desired revival, asserts that he 
“shall consider the awakening genuine and notable 
if the inner life of many churches shall be deepened 
and vitalized. The best evangelism requires a cer¬ 
tain atmosphere in the Church before it can accom¬ 
plish much.” He quotes the Methodist Times, of 
London, as saying that one chief reason of the fail¬ 
ure of the simultaneous Free Church Mission in 
England some years ago was “that the churches 
themselves were not sufficiently saturated with reli¬ 
gious feeling,” and adds, “We cannot create in the 
community a spirit which is little in evidence in the 
Church itself; our efforts should be directed quite 
as much to arousing Christian zeal and purpose as 
to the winning of outsiders.” What is this but to 
emphasize the explicit direction of Jesus to his dis¬ 
ciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they should be 
endued with power from on high? An unspiritual¬ 
ized Church can never, by any mechanical contri¬ 
vances or inventions, bring about a spiritual revival. 
As another has said, “Any real revival cannot 
206 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 207 

simply be worked up; it must be prayed down from 
above. ’ ’ 

It is well enough to debate about methods: whether 
each church in the town shall conduct its own special 
meeting, with the advantage which comes in press¬ 
ing home individual responsibility upon members by 
the pastor; whether there shall be a concerted effort 
of the several churches in union meetings, thus dis¬ 
playing Christian fraternity to the world, appealing 
to a wider constituency, and reducing the labor and 
cost of the spiritual campaign; whether the pastor 
in his own church, or the several pastors in turn, 
shall take charge of the services, or whether some 
specialist—an evangelist of character and of good 
record for successful pleading with men—shall be 
employed, releasing the pastors for evangelistic 
work in pastoral service. It is well to discuss all 
of these things freely and fully; but both pastors and 
evangelists, individual meetings and union efforts 
will fail unless the Church people have an abundant 
spirituality which is manifest to the world. No 
organizing of committees, no advertising, no array 
of big choirs, no hiring of great halls, no “drawing 
power” of a celebrated name can take the place of 
the fundamental thing—a spiritualized Church. 

We hear much about the new evangelism and how 
it must steer clear of fanaticism, keep in touch with 
the intelligence and culture of our time, remember 
that conversion is a broad thing, taking in the whole 
man—physically, socially, intellectually, morally, 
spiritually—that religion also means philanthropy 
and social redemption and corporate salvation. We 
are in no danger of forgetting all this, but, neverthe¬ 
less, when it comes to winning the individual soul 


208 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


there must be, as of old, the direct appeal to the 
emotions. No revival was ever yet ushered in by 
propositions as passionless as the theorems of 
geometry. And this appeal to the emotions must be 
made by pastors, evangelists, and people who have 
real emotion themselves. If the feeling be a fictitious 
one, a mood induced by mere mechanical excitement, 
the semblance of concern for others, but not a genu¬ 
ine expression of an abiding passion of the soul, it 
will be quickly enough discovered and will be utterly 
impotent. It will be repudiated, if not formally, yet 
silently and actually. There must be absolutely 
nothing artificial, nothing either consciously or un¬ 
consciously simulated. 

The appeal must be made, as of old, to the wills 
of men, to break off their sins in righteousness, to 
repent of evil—to decide for God and right—for 
Christ and his truth and ideals of life. But if such 
an appeal is to be effective in any community, it 
must come out of a church membership itself visibly 
zealous for righteousness; it must be backed up by 
the unconscious influence of men and women who, 
as the unconverted are really convinced and satis¬ 
fied, have indeed renounced the world, the flesh, and 
the devil, and are living pure, conscientious, high- 
pitched lives, following, in business and society, all 
goodness in simplicity of consecration. 

The appeal must be made, as of old, to accept 
Christ—to take him as a Saviour and Master—to 
bring all living and doing under his spirit and to his 
standards. But if it is to be efficient, it must have 
behind it the actual indorsement and exemplification 
of a body of Christians whose love for Christ is 
patent and discernible; who are evidently actuated 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 


209 


by the Christ-life within; who themselves are, with¬ 
out any question, subjecting themselves to his rule 
as the Gospels make it known; to whom he, as others 
may see without difficulty, is most certainly precious, 
his atonement touching the deepest chords of grati¬ 
tude and affection, his law of love and his whole 
teaching accepted unhesitatingly as authoritative 
and obeyed. Where the unconverted find those to 
whom Christianity is thus a reality, an actual fact 
and force, an experience, something lived by and 
lived out, the exhortation to them to turn and em¬ 
brace Christ will come with tremendous meaning 
and cogency. Its influence will be well-nigh irresist¬ 
ible. Must there not be, therefore, first, the spirit¬ 
ualized Church before there can be expected any 
spiritual victories, any conquests from the world to 
Christ? And shall we not have it? 

We have been much impressed in looking through 
a late volume by Dr. David Gregg on individual 
prayer as a working force in the lives of Abraham, 
Jesus, Paul, and in the Church and Christian experi¬ 
ence. We would that many pastors and Church 
members would read this book. We are profoundly 
convinced of the need of the truth it emphasizes. It 
convicts us all of too little and too unbelieving 
prayer. The Church will not go forward and its 
revival fires will not be rekindled until there is more 
real praying done, not only in public, but particu¬ 
larly in private. 

Let us state, without quotation marks, some of 
Dr. Gregg’s pointed and heart-revealing sayings: 
A grand, bold life will produce grand, bold prayers; 
a limited life will produce limited prayers. As a 
rule, religious life registers itself in prayer. Be- 


210 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


tween a man’s life and his praying there is a con¬ 
stant action and reaction. Our prayers broaden and 
contract our lives, and our lives broaden and contract 
our prayers. God is always in advance of the largest 
prayers of his people. Hence our largest encourage¬ 
ment in prayer, and in redemptive work, is in God. 
Workers in the gospel field, carrying on their hearts 
the burden of souls; parents praying for their chil¬ 
dren, wives praying for the salvation of their hus¬ 
bands, friends praying for friends, saints longing 
for the redemption of sinners, revivalists dreaming 
of the repetition of Pentecost—let all know that God 
is in advance of them, has a deeper yearning for 
immortal souls, a more intense desire for a revival 
of religion, a larger mercy, and a larger pity for 
sinners than they have. 

The great men of God—Baxter, Luther, Knox, 
Wesley, Whitefield, Edwards, Finney, Payson, Mul¬ 
ler, Moody—were all men who devoted themselves 
to much and fervent prayer. The secret of the life 
of Jesus lay in his prayers. Prayer brought him 
the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost made him the 
man he was. The most real things in his career were 
his prayers. His whole life centered in them. 
Prayer made him. Take it out of his life and you 
unmake him. He was sometimes too busy to eat, 
but never too busy to pray. “Too busy to pray!” 
One might as well say “Too busy to live.” Prayer 
is not lost time. It is living itself. It is that without 
which no time is saved, but all time is lost. To pray 
is to live; not to pray is not to live, it is simply to 
exist. If we are to live well and effectively, hero¬ 
ically and victoriously, we must live our life first in 
prayer before we attempt to live it in word and deed. 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 


211 


The most of us are too weak and inefficient because 
we are wrong in the item of our prayers; they are 
infrequent, narrow, carnal, cold, and unmeaning. 
Paul put his best efforts into prayer and so should 
we. Our prayers, as a rule, cost us little. This is 
the reason we are so feeble in prayer and why 
prayer is such a small power in our lives. 

In the activities of the Church, and in all its 
efforts to evangelize the world, the prayer-power is 
neglected because it is not sufficiently magnified and 
set into its deserved prominence. It is neglected 
even by those ordained to the ministry of the gospel. 
Mr. Moody used to say that if he were choosing ten 
men to work with him for the redemption of a city, 
he would choose ten men who could pray well in 
preference to any ten men who could preach well. 
It was prayer that was the power in the apostolic 
days. It was a praying audience of disciples that 
made a fisherman’s sermon instrumental in the con¬ 
version of three thousand souls. In the era recorded 
in the book of Acts there was a perfect passion for 
prayer. Men laid hold of God, using God, being 
girded by God, and, being girded by God, being God- 
filled and God-strong. We want back again in the 
Christian Church the passion of prayer which in the 
first days established that Church and made it the 
power it was when it had such men as Peter and 
John and Paul—all of them giants at the throne 
of grace. Prayer brings God into communi¬ 
cation with us and makes him and us coworkers. 
It is the standing miracle of the ages. We may not 
understand its philosophy, but we must accept the 
fact. God has so ordained it and we see it is so. 
Nothing so marks the decline or the apostasy of a 


212 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


decaying church as assigning to prayer a secondary 
place. 

In the days of the apostles there were no less than 
four Pentecosts and they were all results of prayer. 
God will always see to it that there shall be a succes¬ 
sion of Pentecosts if the Church will only do its work 
in his way. Church history abounds in examples 
which prove this statement—examples taken from 
the ministry of Edwards, Wesley, Moody, Hudson 
Taylor, and many more. 

Such is Dr. Gregg’s message to Christianity and 
the churches of our day. As we have read and culled 
from his book, we have felt ourselves searched, re¬ 
buked, and brought to judgment. We believe a very 
large part of the difficulty with our present form of 
religion is just where he indicates it to be—in the 
individual neglect of passionate concern and earnest 
prayer for the conversion of others. May his appeal 
not sound on deaf ears! 

We are not among those who, like Dr. Newman 
Smythe (who has recently written a book to prove 
his proposition), believe that Protestantism has 
spent its force and is no longer vital and progres¬ 
sive. We have little sympathy with those preachers 
who, in the pulpit, take up the same lamentation and 
apply it to religion generally. Certainly, in many 
respects, the Church was never more vigorous and 
active than to-day. It was never so thoroughly 
organized for work and for publishing its message 
to the world. Preaching was never more practical. 
Preachers were never better equipped intellectually. 
Innumerable philanthropies are sustained in the 
name of Christ. Missionary efforts multiply and 
broaden magnificently, and fill us with wonder over 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 213 

their success and their prospects. Money is poured 
out lavishly for the sake of the kingdom. Education, 
collegiate and for the masses, having its incentive in 
Christian motive, flourishes beyond precedent. 
Churches, both of the moderate and the costly type, 
rise everywhere. Bibles are printed and scattered 
by the million and religious literature abounds. 
This is an age of social and political reform, and 
great movements like those for civic righteousness, 
industrial betterment, and temperance rely definitely 
upon religious sentiment and enthusiasm for their 
momentum. Those who compose their recruits are 
mostly Christians. The great world of business feels 
the impulse. There is a marvelous awakening of 
interest in the program of the Church on the part 
of the laity, both men and women, everywhere. The 
young people are banded together. The Sunday 
schools have grown to a vast army and were never 
as efficient. The Scriptures never before received 
such intelligent exposition. Great problems, like 
the elevation of an entire black race, the evangeliza¬ 
tion of millions of immigrants, the salvation of our 
great cities, the conversion of the world, are under¬ 
taken hopefully, grandly, and hero leaders are forth¬ 
coming. Huge conventions meet to plan for yet 
larger crusades. Certainly optimism is justifiable. 
What is there to complain about? 

And yet, amid all this glorious activity, is there 
not something lacking of which we are all aware— 
something the need of which each of us feels in him¬ 
self, and is forced to recognize as a deficient quantity 
in the age wherein we live and in the Church of 
to-day? It is the thing broadly called “spirituality.” 
We do not mean sanctimoniousness, nor any arti- 


214 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


ficial unctuousness or mannerisms, but the real mood 
and attitude of the soul. It was present among the 
early Christians. Saint Paul and Saint John abound 
in it and yet, withal, were not of the ascetic type— 
“other-worldly’’ recluses—but of contact with real 
life, thoroughly alive and in touch with humanity. 
We feel it as we sing the hymns of Watts or Wesley, 
or when we read the psalms of the Old Testament. 
But neither psalm nor hymn, we fear, expresses the 
dominant religious temper of to-day. They speak in 
a tongue foreign for us. We repeat the syllables, 
but do not get the meaning. 

We are intensely practical. We have moved far 
away from anything that may be called mysticism. 
In fact, we rather smile at exhibitions of old-fash¬ 
ioned “saintliness,” surviving in certain very aged 
people. In our religion, as in our bread-winning, 
we are “business” through and through. Our min¬ 
isters must be “hustlers.” Our church services are 
worked like a railroad schedule and are often 
nervous rather than restful and devotional. There 
must be “something doing” all the time and the an¬ 
nouncements of the week’s program burden us. Our 
church work is nothing unless “organized” accord¬ 
ing to the latest inventions and with offices and a 
full corps of secretaries. Indeed, we admit that it 
must be so. The Committee on Ways and Means is 
an exceedingly important one. System is indispen¬ 
sable. But O for the breath of the Spirit to animate 
the whole! 

We have thousands of devoted and efficient 
preachers, but is there not a certain tendency to 
make preaching a mere profession, with the literary 
note prevailing? Too often, we fear, it is the ques- 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 215 

tion of eminent position, the size and influence of the 
parish, and the proportions of the salary which out¬ 
weigh other considerations with us. Who will deny 
that, among ministers, these things are talked about, 
and evidently thought about, disproportionately to 
the concern shown as to the spiritual condition of the 
Church and the world? How seldom do two Chris¬ 
tians, or even two ministers, sit down to an exchange 
of confidences on innermost experiences of Christ’s 
truths. The subject seems to be taboo—not good 
form—and therefore avoided; or else there is a real 
lack of the experience and of interest in it. Even 
evangelism runs the danger of becoming profes¬ 
sional and mechanical, and we hear more about 
“methods” than we do about motive and spirit. We 
are not writing in any mood of depression and we 
hope we have not unintentionally overdrawn the 
picture. 

A writer in the Methodist Eecorder of London has 
given us some suggestive reflections on this all-im¬ 
portant theme. He thinks that the words “spirit¬ 
uality” and “to be spiritually minded” have “fallen 
on evil times and evil tongues,” and are only an 
echo, a reminiscence of things once felt or seen. He 
defines “spirituality” as the “general bent of the 
thought and motive directed to divine things. Just 
as to be carnally minded is to have the general bent 
of the thought and motive directed to things that are 
of the earth, earthy, so, to have the dominant cur¬ 
rents of mind, and heart, and will all flow out to the 
Invisible and Eternal is to be spiritually minded!” 
And he truthfully says: “Nobody will contend that 
this attitude of mind is as common as it once was; 
indeed, we shrink from its sterner expressions with a 


216 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


peculiar shame and fear. The tone of our modern 
life lacks this particular emphasis, and the general 
trend and current of it is not to things behind the 
veil, is not remote and lifted out of time. Though 
it must be a joy to the Redeemer to see the gentle, 
persuasive, and unwearied efforts of much modern 
church philanthropy, yet the loss of spirituality 
is a grave thing—the decay of it a very grave 
thing. Spirituality is not a luxury, not an ener¬ 
vation, not a shrinking from one’s fellows, or from 
service—it is a passion for the facts of things.” 
And he concludes his searching study in these words: 
‘ ‘ This is a matter of life, not of policy. Our policies, 
our schemes, whether for the Church or the com¬ 
munity, will have no chance of solving the problems 
unless they are informed and inspired by the guid¬ 
ing of this quality of the sons of God.” 

Lowell somewhere says: “I have observed that 
many who deny the inspiration of the Scriptures 
hasten to redress the balance by giving a reverent 
credit to the revelations of inspired tables and camp 
stools. Our nature resents the closing up of its win¬ 
dows on the emotional and imaginative side, and re¬ 
venges itself as it can. ’’ And again he says , 6 6 1 have 
an old opinion, strengthening with the years, that it 
is as important to keep the soul alive as the body; 
nay, that it is the life of the soul which gives its 
value to that of the body.” 

We believe there are few reflecting persons 
upon whose minds these truths have not been 
pressed by the development of many such move¬ 
ments in our present day, such as Christian Science, 
Theosophy, New Thought, etc. Whenever Christi¬ 
anity itself neglects the proper attention due its own 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 217 

spiritual and mystical truths, and runs off into purely 
mechanical methods of activity, then all sorts of 
spurious mysticisms, appealing to the transcendental 
elements in our natures, make their appearance. 
We believe thoroughly in benevolent work, in institu¬ 
tional programs, and the organization of all kinds 
of societies, but the mechanism of the Church on 
these lines must not supersede the vital element of 
deep piety and soul-longing so prominent in the 
Scriptures and so conspicuous in the lives of the 
great Christian saints. If Christians are to become 
simply men of affairs, conducting eleemosynary 
institutions as they would corporations, then they 
miss the very inner spirit of Christ as it is so emi¬ 
nently brought out to us in Saint John’s Gospel. 
And the hearts of men, hungering for some inspi¬ 
ration from above, will feel themselves denied and 
deprived, and be easy victims for any fanatical and 
superstitious scheme of fallacious mysticism, which 
simply substitutes for real spiritual utterance pon¬ 
derous words, vague and foggy sentences, and a 
phraseology that is as unintelligible and meaning¬ 
less as it is pretentious and pompous. 

There is a distinct need of a divine and super¬ 
natural power in the life of each individual who 
would realize his ideals in righteousness. Christi¬ 
anity promises and furnishes this power, this moral 
efficiency. This supernatural energy is also for the 
Church. Its gospel is, as we have insisted, no proc¬ 
lamation of an ethical system simply. It is the reve¬ 
lation of the dynamic Christ, whose encouraging 
words to his disciples, as he sent them out on their 
mission of world-conquest, were: “All authority 
hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. ’ ’ 


218 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


He wields the power of an infinite love and of an 
almighty, quickening Spirit. 

His definite promise to his followers was that he 
would send forth the promise of his Father upon 
them after his ascension. They should receive power 
when the Holy Spirit should come upon them. They 
were to tarry in Jerusalem until they should be 
clothed with power from on high. They might nat¬ 
urally think that, having been witnesses of the mar¬ 
velous life, the miracles, the resurrection, they were 
abundantly equipped to go out and proclaim the 
wonderful gospel of Jesus without waiting a single 
hour. But they were strictly forbidden to depart 
from Jerusalem, but to wait for the fulfillment of 
the promise. They should be baptized in the Holy 
Spirit. 

Then came Pentecost, with its mysterious rushing 
of a mighty wind, symbol of the Spirit, which, though 
viewless like the air, could manifest its presence and 
work by its visible effects; with the tongues, parting 
asunder, like as of fire—the token of the divine 
faculty of speech infused with a new and high con¬ 
secration from heaven—of the persuasive plead¬ 
ing and eloquence, addressed to men’s minds, hearts, 
and consciences, which should turn thousands to the 
Saviour of the world; with the gift of other tongues 
by which the Spirit gave them utterance for the 
sake of strange peoples. Pentecost can never be 
explained on any naturalistic principles. Its mys¬ 
tery can never be rationalized away. The attempt 
made by mockers when the effect of the miracle was 
first showing itself (“They are filled with new 
wine”) was as inadequate as any subsequent 
attempt. No one can read the Acts of the Apostles, 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 


219 


with the several references to the disciples being 
filled with the Holy Spirit, without feeling that here 
is a record of something neither earthly, natural, 
ordinary, nor human, but mysterious, inexplicable, 
divine, supernatural, miraculous, Godlike. Mani¬ 
festly it was something coming “from above.” 

This power has in all ages been the secret of the 
success of the Church. It can never be dispensed 
with. It must energize her in the twentieth century 
as in the first, if she would accomplish her mission. 
The Church can never become a mere human organi¬ 
zation—a social club meeting under some general 
moral and religious auspices. It cannot be an ethical 
culture society and nothing more. If it is to trans¬ 
form human lives, it must be something better than 
Sunday lectures from the pulpit. They who conduct 
the affairs of the Church—its trustees, stewards, 
superintendents, society presidents—must never 
lose sight of this absolutely essential supernatural 
element in the life of the Christian organism. Or¬ 
ganization, finances, planning are humanly impor¬ 
tant, but the Spirit is the thing all-important and 
altogether indispensable. Without it the Church is 
a body without a soul. No artificial zeal can make 
up for the divine, supernatural energy. Galvanic 
twitchings of inanimate bodies only ghastlily simu¬ 
late real life. There must be the realization of the 
true Christian mysticism—“Abide in me and I in 
you.” These words surpass our understanding, but 
suggest vast possibilities to our faith. Whenever, 
as at present, this mystical element of Christianity 
is partially supplanted by human machinery in the 
Church, then pseudo-systems of mysticism—systems 
which mock and caricature the reality—arise, whose 


220 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


only claim is their own unintelligibility and irra¬ 
tionality. 

Pentecost was no isolated event, standing sep¬ 
arately by itself in the ages. In its essence it must 
be perennial. Wind and flame and tongues depart. 

The Spirit overbrooding all— 

Eternal love remains. 

The Pentecostal gift is no fanaticism like the in¬ 
duced catalepsy of Indian fakirs, or 4 4 getting the 
power” by the over-emotional and hysterical. Let 
the churches realize that their organization cannot 
he an end in itself; that no new edifice, new organ, 
new choir, new and popular pastor speaking how¬ 
ever fluently and magnetically; no crowd, no 44 big 
collections,” no fashionable set of worshipers will 
avail anything for the conversion of men without 
this miraculous, God-given power. 

How shall local churches be made efficient, benevo¬ 
lent and missionary work be prosecuted energetic¬ 
ally, labor for the masses be effectual, resistance to 
organized evils be successful, unless, filled with the 
Holy Spirit, the Church has power with God and so 
can prevail? Ecclesiasticism is a miserable substi¬ 
tute. As the whole atmosphere is surcharged with 
electricity and simply waits to be drawn off to move 
the ponderous wheels of commerce, so above us and 
around us is the reservoir of divine, supernatural 
power, ready for utilization by the Church of Christ! 

On the Church, O Power Divine, 

Cause thy glorious face to shine; 

Till the nations, from afar. 

Hail her as their guiding star; 

Till her sons, from zone to zone. 

Make thy great salvation known. 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 


221 


There is no greater want that our generation 
manifestly confesses than that of a new Pentecost. 
What this present era requires more than anything 
else is the baptism of the Spirit. There must come 
into the manifold processes of our modem life an 
influx of spirituality from above that will fill them 
with higher purposes and significances. Life, as 
led at present, is altogether too sordid and material, 
and confined to the earthly plane and horizon. The 
dollar mark is stamped upon most of our ambitions 
and undertakings. Some present-day Jeremiah 
might well raise his lamentation that the “ prophets 
find no vision from the Lord. ’’ Far more than in the 
days of Wordsworth 

The world is too much with us; late and soon. 

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. 

There is a strange lack of idealism. Reluctantly 
we have been forced to accept in large measure the 
statement that it is increasingly the case that the 
monetary standard and gauge is the measurement 
applied by our modern society to men. The success¬ 
ful man, the man to be respected, is he who has a 
good bank account. The unsuccessful man, the man 
to be pitied and passed by, is he who is not rated in 
Bradstreet’s and rents no big-sized safe-deposit 
drawer for his bonds and securities. The print of 
the cloven-hoof mammon deity is everywhere dis¬ 
cernible. Unless life can be lifted up to some higher 
level by the arm of God; unless some “rushing of 
a mighty wind” of inspiration can sweep over it; 
unless 4 ‘tongues, parting asunder, like as of fire,” 
can inflame the heavy utterances of the market 
place; unless the message of the men of the Book 


222 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


can be listened to and heeded in the streets and on 
’change; unless our young men can see visions of 
something nobler and better than we have just now; 
unless our old men can dream dreams of a new order, 
imbued with loftier aims and enthusiasms; unless 
this age can, somehow, be born anew or from above, 
then it is hopelessly vulgarized—it cannot see the 
kingdom of God. 

Society must be penetrated by diviner motives. 
The ostentatious show, the rivalries and jealousies, 
the round of vanities, the hollowness and shallow¬ 
ness of this “House of Mirth” must be supplanted 
by something more sensible, serious, and profitable. 
Marriage must mean something deeper and more 
sanctified than the frivolous relationship that Ibsen 
has so unsparingly laid bare in “A Doll’s House.” 
Our literature and art must strike into themes more 
thoughtful and worth while. Our political life must 
be lifted out of the low region of the factional squab¬ 
bles of rival leaders. There must be everywhere the 
uprising of a mighty passion for the things that are 
true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and of good 
report. When such a generous temper shall again 
possess us, and revive us, the base appraisals that 
the curbstone broker and the “new rich” put upon 
life will be swept aside and the true standards of 
right and pure living will appear. But it will take a 
Pentecost to do it. The greatest necessity of our 
times is God. It is perilous work trying to get on 
without some religion which is vital, effective, con¬ 
trolling. 

Pentecost is a perennial need, but particularly so 
when the forces of worldliness seem to be success¬ 
fully resisting the forces of spirituality, and per- 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 223 

sistently encroaching upon the soul’s domains. On 
one occasion the officers of the Federation of 
Churches of New York City visited President Roose¬ 
velt to ask his aid in arousing a greater interest in 
religion. Commenting on this, a secular paper, Les¬ 
lie ’s Weekly, says, 4 ‘The great need of the churches 
of New York, and of every other city, is more spirit¬ 
ual life, enthusiasm, power,” hut it adds: “They 
can obtain spiritual power without going to Wash¬ 
ington, if they want it. Their greatest need is an 
old-fashioned revival of religion. The way to obtain 
that is by direct appeal to God, accompanied with 
confession of their sins and humiliating spiritual 
weakness. The churches are not really in earnest. 
Many individuals are. More than a few of the 
preachers seem to be. Some church organizations 
are. But the churches of our great cities as a class 
are not consecrated, spiritual, militant. If they 
were, they would stop the desecration of the Sab¬ 
bath, close the Sunday theaters, and shut up most of 
the saloons. All that is needful is that they should 
mass their forces and vote and work together on 
moral issues. If church members were as enthusias¬ 
tic for righteousness as they are for partisan poli¬ 
tics, they could carry every moral issue to trium¬ 
phant success . 9 9 

At our first reading of this we thought we would 
take issue with it and say that we considered the 
charge that “the churches are not really in earnest” 
was too sweeping and too severe. But it will do us 
good to ponder it for a while. There may be more 
truth in it than we think. And if formalism, worldly 
conformity, listlessness, and spiritual indifference 
have to any degree affected the Church’s power and 


224 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


efficiency, so that it is failing, as indicated, in carry¬ 
ing out the reforms it might in supressing crying 
evils, it is time that we should begin to look most 
earnestly for ‘ ‘ that which was spoken by the prophet 
Joel”: 

And it shall be in the last days, saith God, 

I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh. 

Bishop Arthur Cleveland Coxe has written a 
“Hymn for Whitsunday” which might well be made 
the prayer of all Christians and of all churches: 

Breath of the Lord, O Spirit blest, 

Inspiring Guide, consoling Guest, 

Thy perfect gifts and lights to lend, 

On mortal heads and hearts descend; 

Come to the sluggish sense and mind 
As comes the rushing mighty wind. 

Spirit of power, come down: draw near. 

Spirit of truth and holy fear; 

Succor poor souls that strive with sin. 

The foes without, the foes within; 

And, like the morning’s sun, dispel 
The shades of death, the powers of hell. 

Fire of the Lord, and Light divine. 

Thou glory of the eternal Trine, 

Come, and this gloomy world inflame 
With Jesus’ love, Jehovah’s name; 

And from those lamps before the throne 
Send seven-fold radiance all thine own. 

But we must not be discouraged and look only on 
the dark side. There are those who are constantly 
confusing religion with the forms of religion. But 
a manifestation of change here or there must not 
be misinterpreted. The broad view must be taken. 
We may easily make too much of the altered condi¬ 
tions of revivals, the slimly attended evening service, 
the question of the comparative non-attendance of 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 225 

men at public worship, the break of the industrial 
classes with the Church, and the so-called ‘ 4 indiffer¬ 
ence of the masses.’’ 

We may confidently affirm that there was never a 
greater or more general interest in Jesus Christ 
among all ranks of people. All literature is full of 
him. Even those who neglect the Church reverence 
him. Bibles, tracts, and religious literature were 
never more generally distributed and read. Chris¬ 
tian education is more widely diffused than ever. 
Preaching more practical and earnest, both ethical 
and spiritual, it would be hard to find in previous 
centuries. Piety is freer than formerly from cant, 
sanctimoniousness, and hypocrisy. And what shall 
we say of the zeal for missions and the self-sacri¬ 
fice of missionaries and deaconesses? of the Volun¬ 
teer Movement, the Layman’s Missionary Move¬ 
ment, the young people’s societies, the enthusiasm 
for Sunday schools, church erection, city evangeli¬ 
zation, hospitals, homes for the aged and children, 
colleges, the uplifting of the colored race? What 
shall we say of the broader humanitarianism—a 
philanthropy inspired directly by Christ himself— 
the general improvement in ethical standards in 
social and business life, the determination to find a 
just settlement of the industrial situation, the amaz¬ 
ing spread of the temperance reform and of pro¬ 
hibition legislation, the growing conscientiousness in 
the use of wealth, the larger and truer conceptions 
of God, the clearer understanding of the real charac¬ 
ter of Jesus, the saner and gladder worship, the 
prominence of the loving deed in religion above the 
formal creed? There is danger in laying a “flatter¬ 
ing unction” to the soul and in crying, “Peace, peace 


226 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


when there is no peace. ’ ’ But there is equal danger 
in depression to the vital forces of the Church by 
an untrue exaggeration of her disabilities and depre¬ 
ciation of all her present work and worthiness. 

In the present awakening of the American people 
to the iniquities that have been rampant in business, 
social, and civic life, Washington Gladden sees the 
evidences of a true religious revival which is real and 
essential, though not appearing in the traditional 
form. Men, he thinks, are turning away somewhat 
from the excessive idolization of money, and ma¬ 
terial things and “creature comforts.’’ Not all men 
are doing so. It may be that the great mass are 
still in mad pursuit of the dollar, but there is con¬ 
siderable evidence that no small part of the com¬ 
munity is seeing that there are higher things to 
strive for and is looking inward on the things of the 
soul. Many men are confessing that the things they 
once cared for supremely they now hold in subordi¬ 
nation. They have experienced a real “change of 
heart” in their valuation of the ends which are 
worth while and that count in life. As the old-time 
Methodists used to say, the things which they once 
loved they now hate, and the things they once hated 
they now love. 

This may be putting the case a little strong, but 
that there is a moral revolution taking place in the 
ideals of our people no one can doubt. If it is styled 
a general revival few will object. It is something to 
be devoutly thankful for and to be encouraged in 
larger and larger development. The ways of the 
Spirit are not always the same from age to age, and 
if the revival for which we are all hoping and pray¬ 
ing shall be accompanied by a predominance of the 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 


227 


moral element rather than the emotional, as in times 
past, we do well to recognize gratefully the true 
religiousness of the movement, and to thank Al¬ 
mighty God for it. Religion may not be as dead as 
some of us have been thinking. The difficulty may 
be with our non-recognition of it in a new and unfa¬ 
miliar aspect. But God fulfills himself in many 
ways. 

There may be much in the religious situation which 
provokes serious concern. But other aspects inspire 
confidence and hope. One of these is the evidence 
that the great general public still manifests an 
absorbing interest in religious matters. With so 
many and vast questions of national and interna¬ 
tional importance to claim attention; with wonder¬ 
ful changes and agitations throughout the world in 
the breaking up and transformation of old nations 
and systems, and the establishment of the new; with 
the press presenting every day multitudinous dis¬ 
cussions, of amazing variety and attraction, in poli¬ 
tics, commerce, finance, education, science, art, and 
amusement, religion still maintains its hold on the 
minds of the people. Like the Ancient Mariner’s 
tale, the problems of the soul have a fascination from 
which men cannot tear themselves away. They 
‘ 1 cannot choose but hear.” 

There are frequent comments upon the number of 
people who do not go to church. But there is a great 
multitude who do go. While some churches may be 
sparsely attended, others have “standing room 
only.” Tens of thousands of sermons are preached. 
What other theme than religion could bring the 
people together, in hundreds of meetings, twice or 
thrice a week, year in and year out? “Age cannot 


228 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


wither nor custom stale its infinite variety . 99 No 
disputations in politics or science could, for such a 
period, so attract and hold the public. In “ drawing 
power’’ religion still maintains its preeminence. 
The people make enormous sacrifices in order to 
build churches, maintain worship, and support mis¬ 
sions. With all the competition of a rich and various 
literature, the Bible’s popularity is still undimin¬ 
ished. When Phillips Brooks and Dwight L. Moody 
were alive large audiences of men would fill the great 
auditoriums of Trinity Church and Madison Square 
Garden to hear them. They came in business hours, 
and they were business men, practical and hard- 
headed. They listened to the most serious presenta¬ 
tion of profoundest theological themes. It made 
little difference that one preacher was “broad” and 
the other “orthodox.” It was shown that religion 
under either guise stirred their hearts to the 
depths. Theology for them was not a defunct thing. 
Whether in stately periods or homely, direct talk, it 
found in them its mark. Men as well as women evi¬ 
denced their need of religion. And the same phe¬ 
nomena are now displayed under the evangelistic 
preaching of a ‘ 4 Billy” Sunday. 

It is said that the people are exhibiting a declin¬ 
ing interest in the religious press and that the theo¬ 
logical reviews and denominational papers are in 
straits for lack of support. It is true that several 
theological reviews have had to suspend. For tech¬ 
nical and abstruse theological discussion the public 
may have little taste, but for theology popularly pre¬ 
sented, level to the average understanding, there is 
a great demand. The monthly magazines of widest 
circulation return again and again to the religious 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 


229 


article. One most extensively distributed ran Canon 
Farrar’s “Life of Lives,” a biography of Jesus, 
as a serial, and another the life of Luther. A promi¬ 
nent metropolitan journal continued for many weeks 
a discussion on immortality. The tiny books of 
devotion have a very large sale. There are some 
who would have us believe that biblical criticism has 
destroyed the faith of the people in things religious. 
But the evidence does not point that way. The New 
York Sun once said: “Interest and inquiry concern¬ 
ing questions of religion were never more active 
than they are now. Of the voluminous correspond¬ 
ence coming to us, the subject which engages the 
greatest part devoted to any single theme is religion. 
Last year we printed for many weeks these volun¬ 
tary discussions, and they constituted the most 
remarkable, and in some respects the ablest, debate 
on the questions treated which has appeared any¬ 
where of recent years; yet so vast was the volume of 
this correspondence that we could not publish more 
than a comparatively few of the letters received, 
else we should have had room for little besides. Nor 
did this flood of correspondence on specific and gen¬ 
eral religious questions cease when we brought the 
debate to an end; it still continues to make up a 
larger body of our correspondence than concerns 
itself with any other subject. If a thoughtful sug¬ 
gestion concerning religion is made in this paper, it 
always bears fruit in many letters to us from every 
part of the Union, and the vast majority of them are 
from laymen and from religious believers, rather 
than infidels.” 

It seems to us that these facts make a basis for a 
reasonable hope of a general religious revival and 


230 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


of the permanent advancement and strengthening of 
all religious concerns. It behooves the Church and 
clergy to study seriously how to make appeal to this 
fundamental, underlying trait of the human soul, 
and press for the definite acceptance of Christ and 
his way. It is indeed the one most significant and 
encouraging sign in the spiritual heavens—the bur¬ 
den for a great and general revival of religion which 
has seemingly been rolled onto all pastors and 
churches alike. We do not remember anything quite 
so universal, persistent, and solemnly pressing in 
recent years. There is a widespread conviction, 
which has taken firm hold upon the churches, that the 
times are urgent, that man’s need of a great spirit¬ 
ual quickening and empowering is supreme, that we 
have come to a climax-hour in our history when God 
must manifest himself mightily in the salvation of 
men. This profound feeling is displayed in the ser¬ 
mons of all of our evangelical pulpits. All of our re¬ 
ligious papers are discussing the question in every 
issue. Even the radicals among religious bodies 
have taken up the tremendous theme from their own 
point of view. 

And this gathering conviction is not simply the 
expression of man’s desire. It is God’s Spirit mak¬ 
ing itself felt through the human soul with which he 
is in touch. Does it sometimes seem as though men 
were very earnest for the salvation of sinners, and 
as if they prayed and entreated the Almighty in vain 
for a demonstration of converting power? Does 
there sometimes seem to be what a recent writer has 
styled “the divine indifference”? when “earnest 
men watch with dismay the immoralities around 
them, the orgies of lust and crime, the prosperity of 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 


231 


villains, the grinding of the poor, and in their strug¬ 
gle against it they get no help”; when, as Carlyle 
said in his spleen, “God sits in heaven and does 
nothing!” Or, when, as Faber describes not how it 
really is but how 4 ‘ it looks ’ ’: 

He hides himself so wondrously. 

As though there were no God; 

He is least seen when all the powers 
Of ill are most abroad. 

This is the natural feeling which often oppresses 
us in laboring for the higher morality and civic life 
against the activities of the devil and devilish men. 
We almost react, sometimes, too, in our evangelistic 
ardor, when our prayers seem to bring no answer 
whatever, into a pessimistic mood which imagines 
the universe is deaf, and that nobody even in heaven 
cares whether men are saved or not. But, as the 
author we just quoted says, this would be the most 
egregious of mistakes. It is only the personal that 
can help the personal. God’s approach to us is by 
the indwelling of his Spirit within us and the expres¬ 
sion of that Spirit through us. He incarnates his 
very soul and passion in us. “The developing senti¬ 
ment of the moral community, the sentiment which 
protests against injustice and works for a better 
order, is simply his voice in the world. He speaks 
to man through man, and no other way. Our very 
impatience with the oppositions and the slow prog¬ 
ress is but the rush of the stream of his life in the 
too-narrow channels of our limited nature. The 
revolt of our conscience against the low moral order 
is his battle cry for a better one.” 

This, it seems to us, is admirably stated, and it 
applies to our zeal and frequent impatience in spirit- 


232 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


ual movements as well as in moral crusades. Our 
prayers are not returning to us fruitless. God is 
already manifesting himself in the growing intensity 
of his people. There is a conviction, becoming con¬ 
stantly weightier, that men have really gone on quite 
far enough in paying such exclusive attention to 
material things—in frenzied rush after pelf, place, 
and power, in “the mad race after the dollar”— 
and that it is quite high time that the concerns of the 
immortal soul had some little attention paid them. 
There is distinct reaction in that direction. 

Again, there is the outcry of a public aghast at a 
seeming “tidal wave of immorality” breaking over 
the land. There is still altogether too much political 
corruption. Divorce and lax marriage relations, 
fornication and adultery scandalize us. In great 
cities, like New York and Chicago, murders, suicides, 
and “hold-ups” crowd upon each other’s heels. The 
newspapers every morning are records of a carnival 
of crime. Is it any wonder that people everywhere 
are crying out: “0 Lord, how long? Shall there be 
no end to this? Is there no help? If a revival of 
religion will make things safer, more decent, more 
protective of property, of chastity, civic purity, 
honor, and human life, let us all join in praying for 
it and working for it tremendously, for it is fright¬ 
fully needed.” But our souls must be thoroughly 
cleansed before God can bring his best answer. Why 
do we want men converted? To swell the church 
record ? To help on with the finances ? That we may 
make a vainglorious report at Synod, Convention, or 
Conference? That the evangelist may advertise his 
“thousand souls saved” through his instrumen¬ 
tality? 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 233 

It will be only as we have an unaffected passion 
for men themselves and for their own good and for 
bringing them to their Saviour, which is free from 
all ulterior motives, free from corrupting, worldly 
dross—that God can use us as his instruments in 
conversion and revival. May this simple and sin¬ 
cere sympathy, this highest form of humanitarian- 
ism and philanthropy fill the heart of the entire 
Church of Christ! 

In many instances, doubtless, the chief obstacle to 
evangelistic success is the dead-and-alive condition 
of the Church. But, in many other cases, this can¬ 
not be truthfully alleged. There is a healthy, fer¬ 
vent spirit of piety in the Church, but many other 
practical considerations put a check upon the 
Church’s converting power. 

It is not easy to give a correct diagnosis of our 
present religious condition. No one specific thing 
can be singled out as preventing growth and prog¬ 
ress. We are hedged about by a variety of consider¬ 
ations. The main thing we would instance is the 
growing complexity of our present-day life. The 
thought of the people is absorbed in a thousand 
events and projects, and it is correspondingly more 
difficult to gain their attention for spiritual affairs. 
The multitudinous happenings and plannings of a 
bustling, driving world, in a high-tension age, divide 
and distract the minds of men, and withdraw from 
the possible contemplation of religion and duty. 
Another condition is created than existed in simpler 
times. Men are not absolutely indifferent to reli¬ 
gion, the gospel has not lost its power, the Church is 
not moribund, the ministry is not faithless. But 
how to catch the ear of the hurrying throng—how 


234 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


to get them to pause, reflect, and pray—is the hard 
question to be answered. In rural life this is not so 
difficult. The “special services” at the church are 
the one attraction as well as the privilege of the vil¬ 
lage. Conversions are consequently more numerous 
in the country. But the cities demand the closest, 
the most prayerful consideration of ways and means. 
Not only does the intensity of the time affect the 
“outsiders” who ought to be reached by religion, 
but it affects Church people themselves. Every city 
pastor knows the difficulties. Early in the summer 
a large proportion of his most influential members 
leave for seashore or mountain resort, and do not 
return until the fall has well begun. Scarcely have 
the Church and Sunday school “Bally days” been 
observed before the preparations for the holidays 
begin. In the home there is extraordinary occupa¬ 
tion. There is likely to be much energy of a certain 
kind in the church circles, for this is the season for 
festivals, fairs, sales, bazaars. Little or nothing 
distinctly religious can be done until these are over. 
Sometimes these seem necessary and justifiable, but 
there is an increasing conviction that such matters 
have been overworked, and the demand is growing 
for a simpler method of collecting funds. The 
months of October and November, if left free for 
definite evangelizing, might bring glorious profit. 
This season is unpreempted by special claimants. 

It is our habit to hold evangelistic meetings dur¬ 
ing January. Something may be said for the oppor¬ 
tuneness of the date. Reflection is awakened with 
the birth of a new year. The time is sanctioned by 
custom. It meets the expectation of the people. But 
in many places in our northern latitudes this is the 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 


235 


most unfortunate month of the whole calendar to 
set apart for such services. In Minnesota we have 
tried to conduct revivals when the thermometer was 
down to twenty or thirty below, and, ordinarily, this 
is the period of cold, fog, storms, slush, grip, and 
general physical misery. It seems like flying in 
the face of Providence and common sense to select 
this month out of the whole year, when the spring 
time is so much more agreeable. Then, for many, 
there would be no such menace to health in ventur¬ 
ing out at night, and large audiences could be rea¬ 
sonably expected. 

Other circumstances also stand in the way in the 
city, if not in the country. Merchants are engaged, 
in the first of the year, taking their inventories, and 
are tied down to their business more closely than at 
any other season. The social season is at its height 
and many are drawn into its attractions. There is 
particular reason why the Lenten weeks should be 
selected for special religious services. It is getting 
to be more and more the custom in many churches 
to observe the week before Easter Sunday by special 
services on each night. The custom is one that has 
such manifest propriety in it, and such possibilities 
of spiritual profit, that we wish to do all we can, by 
way of recommendation and exhortation, to per¬ 
suade all pastors to prepare for such meetings and 
announce them well in advance. The weather is 
more propitious and society rests. 

If no evangelistic services have been previously 
held during the year, the advisability of such a 
course is apparent, and the time might well be ex¬ 
tended to two or three weeks. If there have been 
revival services, there is no reason why these addi- 


236 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


tional meetings should not also be held, hut every 
reason for them. 

The events in the closing period of Jesus's earthly 
life are so naturally affecting that the deepest emo¬ 
tions of our souls are easily wrought upon by the 
simplest comment upon them. The subjects that 
obviously present themselves to the preacher are so 
suggestive and searching, so touching and penetrat¬ 
ing, that they will almost preach themselves if the 
heart has been brought, by prayer and meditation, 
into solemn communion with them. There are no 
themes that will fill the heart.of the Christian with 
more holy thoughts and grateful reflections as he 
thinks of the One who died for his sins, or that will 
move him in thankfulness to more sincere consecra¬ 
tion. And, likewise, there are no themes better cal¬ 
culated to touch the conscience of the sinner and 
lead to repentance. 

The revival is blocked in other ways. First, the 
particular church people who really ought to be in 
the service are conspicuous by their absence. The 
good folk who go regularly to prayer meeting and 
class meeting are always on hand. They compose 
most of the audience. They need the help which 
comes to them, but not as much as do others. The 
business men—frequently those of the official board 
—will tell the pastor emphatically, 4 ‘Can't come; 
would be glad to, but—too many engagements." In 
many cases this may be true. But we are certain 
that frequently they could find a way or make it. 
Sometimes, when the services have gathered momen¬ 
tum and interest, we have seen them drawn in, and 
there seemed to be little difficulty in their attendance. 
Likewise, ladies and young people who were so full 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 237 

of social engagements that they could not come, and 
prayed to be excused, were attracted. If a revival 
does no more good in a church than to get its hold 
upon this large class of Christians, it certainly has 
been worth while. But these church members ought 
to consider seriously whether they could not, by some 
self-sacrifice, put themselves into the current at the 
start, and, with the whole body of the Church, seek 
to win the unconverted. They need not load up with 
so many “events,’’ socially. Let lodges, clubs, teas, 
dinners, receptions—everything but the absolutely 
necessary—be side-tracked, and give the main line 
rails to Christ. 

One of the great illustrated weeklies once printed 
a statement in which truth and error seemed to be 
mixed in about equal proportions: “It is true that 
the churches, on the whole, are out of touch with the 
times, behind the age, and not in advance, as they 
should be—their teachings and their methods not in 
adjustment with the needs and demands of the every¬ 
day life of everyday men. If the churches confess¬ 
edly fail, as they do, to reach the masses; if attend¬ 
ance is falling off and interest in religion declining, 
it is not that men and women are growing harder, 
more unbelieving and materialistic; not that they 
feel less the need of spiritual guidance and uplift 
than in former days, but chiefly because they do not 
find the needed uplift and guidance in the religious 
service as it is now administered in many of the 
churches. They find there, instead, too much con¬ 
ventionality, too much insistence upon things use¬ 
less, outworn, and nonessential, too much that is 
abstract and theoretical, and too little that is prac¬ 
tical and truly helpful and inspiring.” 


238 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


It is an easy generalization to make, and it sounds 
rather superior to say that the churches are “out of 
touch with the times,’’ “behind the age,” “not in 
adjustment to the needs and demands” of present 
life, fail to give “needed uplift and guidance,” and 
insist too much on the useless, outworn, abstract, 
theoretical, and all that, and not enough on the 
practical and inspiring. But where is the proof of 
all this serious allegation? It seems to us like sheer 
dogmatism. May not the fault be quite as much with 
the world as with the Church? How can one jump 
at such conclusions as those quoted? That the 
churches are not perfect all must admit. That they 
need constantly to adjust themselves to new condi¬ 
tions is a truism. But they are realizing this and 
making the endeavor all the time. What the 
churches and the ministers want is specific intima¬ 
tion of defect in this and that particular, and a posi¬ 
tive indication of how to remedy it. 

There are many who allege that the prevalent 
tendency to bring reason to bear on questions of 
religion has operated to blight spirituality and 
freeze warm-hearted piety. But we cannot agree 
with their contention. It has been well said of the 
faculty of reason: “It is no part of religion to dis¬ 
parage it, or to thwart it, or to mortify it, or to 
humiliate it. It is the mission of religion to illumi¬ 
nate it, to help it and get help from it, and to give 
it a new play and power in life. It is divine in its 
original qualities and it has been assigned by the 
Creator to the headship over human life.” 

In their revolt against an unrestrained rational¬ 
ism Christian thinkers have too broadly denied the 
function of reason in the province of religion. They 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 239 

forget that Saint Paul has declared that the conse¬ 
cration of ourselves to God as living sacrifices is a 
reasonable, a logical, rational service. In his view, 
religion was neither mechanical nor sensational. 
God invites us to use our reasoning powers, saying, 
“Come, let us reason together.’’ In his Revelation 
there are books in which Wisdom is personified as 
the companion of God who descends to dwell with 
men, to stand in the city’s streets and market places 
to argue, urge, and plead. Jesus himself debated 
with the doctors of his time and, by gentle and pro¬ 
longed education, unfolded the mysteries of the king¬ 
dom in the training of his disciples. Religion never 
presents itself, in his teaching, as a thing of arbi¬ 
trary authority or of unmeaning ceremonial, but as 
a reasonable argument and claim. 

Are scholars to-day throwing the searchlight of 
reason on the Scriptures as never before? There is 
nothing to fear; Christianity is the highest reason¬ 
ableness. On its intellectual side, no one is asked 
to believe anything which is fundamentally unrea¬ 
sonable. In fact, he could not if he made the effort. 
Cardinal Vaughn in vain tried to compel Saint 
George Mivart to accept, on the authority of the 
Church, statements and interpretations which were 
an affront to his reason. The scientist found the task 
impossible, and refused. Even those mysteries 
which go beyond our present finite reason are still 
not unreasonable. They do not shock and confound 
reason. Reason follows their course a long way, and 
if she cannot trace their entire orbit, she is convinced 
that ultimately, if all were known, they would stand 
justified in her court. Christianity claims that if 
there is miracle, there is reason for miracle, and 


240 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


miracle is reasonable. She affirms that if we could 
know all, the miraculous is the truly rational. 

So all Christian theology is reasonable. The 
supernatural is not the negation of the natural—the 
unknown of the known. Revelation does not come to 
confound our thinking. Its office is not to destroy, 
but to fulfill. The Christian conception of God’s 
relation to the universe is infinitely more reasonable 
than that of atheism and materialism, which involve 
our thought in absurdities, impossibilities, unthink¬ 
able propositions. There have been, indeed; ridicu¬ 
lous propositions put forth by theologians, but they 
were not true expositions of our Scriptures. A reve¬ 
lation, an incarnation, a resurrection—these have 
nothing in them that bring consternation to our logi¬ 
cal faculties. 

Christianity is no fanaticism nor superstition. Its 
apologists, like Tertullian, Justin Martyr, Eusebius, 
Augustine, Origen, Grotius, Lardner, Butler, Paley, 
Watson, Gladstone, Balfour, have vindicated their 
belief by appeal to intellectual proofs and convic¬ 
tions. What is there in its system at which reason 
revolts ? Is it worship ? Is it prayer ? Is it love to 
God and man? Is it the specified moral and phil¬ 
anthropic duties? 

Religion addresses itself to feeling, indeed, but 
fundamentally to intellect, conscience, and will. It 
puts our service of God as the dictate of the highest 
common sense. Its effort is not to work the emotions 
into an unthinking frenzy. It grounds itself on 
great truths as well as on great experiences. It does 
not seek its converts by enticing the rash, the silly, 
the light-headed, the fantastic. There would be 
small significance in a large body of weak and excit- 


SPIRITUALITY THE URGENT NEED 241 

able men turning to embrace it. The real strength 
of a revival must be found, not simply in the excite¬ 
ment it has occasioned, but in the reasons it has fur¬ 
nished men for the faith that is in them. It has done 
its work well if it has been able to make them see 
that there is nothing finer or higher than an imita¬ 
tion of Jesus: to go about like him doing good, to 
follow, living or dying, his glorious example; to dis¬ 
cern that this is the only true life, life at its best, the 
life that was made for God, and which is restless 
until it reposes in him; that man’s life, otherwise, is 
imperfect, undeveloped, deficient. 

Apart from God there is no true self-realization— 
we come to ourselves, like the prodigal, when we 
come to the Father. We can arrive at no other con¬ 
clusion than that to love him and serve him is right, 
true, and our bounden duty. We ought to answer 
God’s efforts at self-revelation. As Creator, Law¬ 
giver, Deliverer, Father he presents himself to us in 
the most reasonable as well as the most pathetic 
lights. The life and sufferings of Jesus justify them¬ 
selves to our deepest thought as the highest sanity. 

Jesus never used demagogic methods to persuade 
men. His earnestness, gravity, and sweet reason¬ 
ableness, his forcible presentation of great truths 
and tremendous motives for diviner living—these 
are the chief characteristics of his speech. If they 
seemed to have small effect at times, he was never 
discouraged, never descended to sensationalism. If 
conversions seem to be too few to-day, we shall not 
mend the situation by trying to stampede men like 
the swine of Gadara—by flying to claptrap and 
senseless harangues. The great revivals conducted 
by such men as Wesley, Whitefield, Finney, and 


242 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


Moody were full of thought and doctrine and patient 
teaching. Of course we do not want a “ barren intel- 
lectualism. ” We hear a good deal about the intellect 
being ‘ ‘ cold and icy, ’’ but heart can warm brain, and 
brain can inform heart. We are told that, to-day, 
if we would get men into the Church we must hyp¬ 
notize them—stimulate them to act impulsively and 
unreflectingly. No, the problem is just the opposite 
—how to get men, in this complex and rushing age, 
to really think and reason about the supreme affairs 
of their souls. 


CHAPTER IX 

Revival Power in the Church 

Seldom do we stop to think of the far-reaching 
blessings of a great religious awakening. We re¬ 
joice over the salvation for time and eternity of 
immortal souls—over rescue from loss and self- 
destruction and preservation to the eternal life of 
holiness and beneficent character. We see the direct 
results in accessions to the Church, and the multipli¬ 
cation of helpers in all benevolent church activities. 
But the kingdom of God receives acceleration and 
uplift at every point. The home feels the effect of 
the new life immediately. Husbands, wives, and chil¬ 
dren are in every way benefited. Their relations are 
purified and sanctified. Perhaps for many genera¬ 
tions to come the influence of a single conversion may 
be felt in the heredity, impress, and instruction 
bequeathed to descendants. 

Society is directly affected. Men are made better 
neighbors, old feuds are reconciled, and there are 
more kindness and self-sacrifice in all the connec¬ 
tions of life. All philanthropies are quickened by 
the new energies with which transformed hearts in¬ 
fuse them. Humanitarianism would die without this 
constantly recurring vitalization of religion. Re¬ 
forms would lack incentive and power of execution 
if souls, renewed in Christlikeness, did not empty 
their enthusiasms into them. Zeal for law and order 
would degenerate into cant unless fed by a mighty 
conviction of righteousness born of repentance, a 
243 


244 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


strong loathing of sin, a regeneration, an enamored 
contemplation of the majestic purity of God and his 
Son. After every great awakening colleges have 
had increased attendance and theological seminaries 
gather more candidates for the ministry. All busi¬ 
ness and commerce are touched and molded. Drunk¬ 
ards and vagrants become workers; wasters, pro¬ 
ducers. Men, shaped anew by the Holy Spirit, and 
lifted to higher levels of sobriety, self-control, and 
conscientious fidelity in labor and contracts, as work¬ 
ingmen and employers manifest the practical char¬ 
acter of their spiritual energizing. Both as captains 
of industry and as employees they are made more 
considerate of each other, and their relationships 
become fraternal and cooperative. 

City and nation are borne upward and forward 
upon the crest-waves of great spiritual inflowing 
tides. Converted men are strangely moved by the 
calls of patriotism so akin to religion, by the demand 
of a higher idealism in municipal life and party 
administration, by the necessity of rebuking organ¬ 
ized evils and establishing justice and civic purity. 
Thus political reformation and the new order of 
loftier citizenship wait upon the soul’s transforma¬ 
tion by the Spirit. As religion permeates all life— 
domestic, social, educational, artistic, industrial, 
governmental—so a great revival floods every de¬ 
partment of being with its tremendous purifications. 
For the sake of a higher individualism, a sanctified 
hearth-stone, nobler social standards, a larger sym¬ 
pathy and helpfulness, the rectification of wrongs, 
abuses, and public immoralities, more equitable and 
brotherly bonds between labor and capital, let us 
strive and look to God in persistent prayer for the 


REVIVAL POWER IN THE CHURCH 


245 


general revival which is needed everywhere as much 
as in the Church, and which city, State, and nation, 
in their increasing powers and responsibilities, must 
have unless they would miserably perish. 

After a State election in New York a citizen of 
Rochester sent a letter to the Democrat and Chron¬ 
icle on “The Election and the Revival,” and that 
liberal-minded paper published it in full. As it con¬ 
tains a clear and vigorous statement of principles 
which are of general application outside of New 
York State, we give generous extracts from it. The 
writer said: 

“A revival of personal religion, a deepening of the 
sense of God and the guilt of sin, would mean a 
revival of civic and industrial righteousness, and the 
weakest spots in our national life are our civic gov¬ 
ernments and industrial unrighteousness. The busi¬ 
ness man is in the meshes of a great industrial 
system which many personally repudiate, but which 
no one personally can break through. Men feel they 
cannot square their lives by the standards of Christ 
because they must play the same game their com¬ 
petitors play. What only can cure industrial wrongs 
is a new sense of God. And they are in imminent 
need of cure. 

“I do not fear the socialistic movement—I am a 
Christian socialist myself. But I do fear what the 
movement indicates, which is that there is suspicion 
and ill will between employers and employees, be¬ 
tween the possessing class and the laboring class; that 
one class feels the other has not played fair, which is 
true, for both have played false; that the working¬ 
man feels he has not gotten the just share of his 
earnings, which in many cases is true. The great 


246 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


common people feel that something is wrong and 
they have set themselves to its righting. Our peril 
is not in this uprising of socialism, but in the real 
wrongs which have induced the movement. 

“We cannot right these wrongs single-handed. A 
democracy cannot endure without brotherhood, but 
no one man can apply the principle of brotherhood 
to his business, for he is part of a vast system. No 
single man can succeed in business by the Golden 
Rule when all his competitors are working by the 
iron rule of greed. What only can right these 
wrongs is a new sense of God in our common daily 
life; God at the door of the office and store and fac¬ 
tory, demanding that all men do justly and love 
mercy and walk humbly before him. The real 
wrongs against which the wave of socialism is beat¬ 
ing grow out of a low morale in industrial life; some 
men forget God when they enter their office or shop. 
And to criticize idly any earnest, intelligent, loving 
effort to raise our moral standards and heighten the 
sense of God is either ignorance or infidelity. The 
cause of Christ in this country needs a mighty 
thrusting forward just now. And what a truly mas¬ 
terful campaign did for the politics of the State a 
really masterful campaign will do for righteousness 
in our city. By arresting men’s attention and turn¬ 
ing their hearts to God, God will have a fair chance 
in their lives.” 

Dr. Alexander McLaren, of England, says: “It will 
be a good day for all the churches when their mem¬ 
bers ask themselves whether they are doing the work 
for which they are established by their Lord, if they 
fail in winning men to be his, and whether Christ will 
be satisfied if, when he asks them why they have not 


REVIVAL POWER IN THE CHURCH 247 

carried out his commands to take his gospel to those 
around them who are without it, they answer , 4 Lord, 
we were so busy studying deep theological questions, 
arguing about the validity of critical inquiries as to 
the dates of the books of the Bible, preaching and 
hearing eloquent discourses, comforting and edify¬ 
ing one another, that we had to leave the Christless 
masses alone.’ ” The good Doctor would rouse the 
conscience of the Church to feel that it is to be the 
messenger of glad tidings first of all, whatever else 
it may be in addition. He suggests that there are 
very many who, though they may have neither learn¬ 
ing nor eloquence, since they have the knowledge of 
One who has saved them, and desires to save others, 
have a definite duty in seeking the unsaved. 

Who can really doubt that Dr. McLaren has put 
the emphasis just where it belongs in our Christian 
work? The Church cannot be an end in itself; to 
support its services, to meet the current expenses, 
to pay the preacher, the choir, the janitor—these 
cannot be the ultimate things. There must, indeed, 
be much preaching which is for the building up of 
the saints. But the trouble to-day is that the saints 
are getting more than their share; too exclusively 
the preaching is the beautiful and helpful elabora¬ 
tion of some fine doctrine for their benefit. Doubt¬ 
less they need the direction and comfort they thus 
receive. They might fall back into worldliness—at 
least they might not advance in grace as they should 
—unless they had these numerous sermons. And 
yet, does it not sometimes look a trifle ludicrous and 
incongruous that good, cultured, pious people—with 
all the help that heredity, environment, established 
habit, the support of Christian society, can give for 


248 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


virtue—get so much, and 41 poor sinners,” with a 
bad lineage, base surroundings, vicious tendencies, 
and wicked associates, so comparatively little? 

One might think that the Church people could pos¬ 
sibly get along and be tolerably good without so 
much overfeeding, and let the unevangelized have 
some of the message. Some churches are gospel- 
logged—soaked and saturated and penetrated in 
every pore with sound doctrine—but there have 
been very few conversions in them for years, and the 
members would hardly know how to act if they 
should see somebody under conviction. Surely the 
command of Christ to make disciples, to teach them 
to observe all things whatsoever he had commanded, 
was not simply a foreign missionary exhortation. 
It was as much for us and those right around us; 
and lo, he is with us alway, even unto the end of the 
world! 

Certain it is that the times call loudly for reform. 
But as Wesley proved conclusively, the best way to 
accomplish reforms is to labor for the intensification 
and vitalization of the religious life. In the com¬ 
munity outside there is a certain world-weariness— 
a reaction against an overdone mammonism and a 
mad devotion to earthly pleasures and gains. 
Thousands of men would welcome a fresh exhibi¬ 
tion of a fervent religiousness in public and private 
life. 

The religion of Christ has not lost its old-time 
efficiency. The Rev. S. F. Collier, of Manchester, 
England, has spoken most convincingly on “The 
Miracle of Changed Lives,” as it has come under his 
observation in his mission. At the prison gate, in 
the slum, in lodging houses, in the streets, he has 


REVIVAL POWER IN THE CHURCH 249 

sought the needy and the lost. This is Christianity 
in practice and is putting to a very real test its 
power to save. The results furnished the strongest 
arguments in its favor. The healed man has always 
been the best apologist for Christianity. Mr. Col¬ 
lier does not depreciate other arguments. He wel¬ 
comes the reasoning of great intellects, and the con¬ 
firmatory evidence of clever scientists, but the 
miracle of changed lives is, to his mind, the most 
powerful proof of the reality and truth of our faith. 
From the brothel to purity of life, from the gin- 
palace to sobriety, from the gambler’s hell to hon¬ 
esty, from prison to respectable citizenship, from 
greed and cruelty to generosity and kindliness— 
these are changes which ought to bring conviction to 
every man whose doubt is honest and sincere. Such 
changes are not wrought by human power. They 
are not the creations of a fevered brain. Culture, 
education, ideal conditions of life may do much, but 
they are powerless to accomplish such reforms. Su¬ 
pernatural power alone can produce such results. All 
systems, social, political, religious, must stand the 
final test of practical efficiency. Christianity chal¬ 
lenges and welcomes the test. Let the agnostic, the 
atheist, the unbeliever produce like results in saved 
drunkards, rescued harlots, restored prodigals, re¬ 
formed homes. To them we will say, “This rod has 
budded; let the magicians do the same with theirs!” 
And what Christianity has proved itself powerful to 
do for the lowest and worst classes of humanity it 
can certainly do for those in better surroundings, 
with better heredity, better talents, and education. 

Sometimes it is felt that our modern culture is put¬ 
ting a damper on evangelistic zeal. But consecrated 


250 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


culture ought to be one of the most helpful of all 
allies in bringing men to Christ. This truth has 
been most frankly and forcibly stated by a recent 
writer who says: “Nothing is more needed in the 
evangelistic sermon than sound fundamental brain- 
work. Such a sermon should have superior and out¬ 
standing qualities of its own, such as pungency, 
directness, cogency of appeal, force of persuasion; 
but it will never influence the thoughtful unless it 
has sound fundamental brain-work. The evangelist 
will gain immensely in power by being also a thinker. 
This is one of the lessons of Wesley’s life, which has 
been strangely overlooked. It is a lesson that we 
have to relearn. Wesley was a clear, logical thinker, 
and, from the merely intellectual point of view, a 
great preacher, yet he was the greatest of evangel¬ 
ists. Can we refuse the deduction that evangelism 
has everything to gain and nothing to lose by the clos¬ 
est possible alliance with culture? And in the con¬ 
ditions of our own time, with its constantly rising 
standard of education, is not the union of culture 
with evangelism absolutely necessary if evangelism 
is once more to become a national force ? 9 9 

Let, then, our ministers summon their very best— 
their highest thoughts, their profoundest reflections 
and arguments, wrought out in the quiet of the study 
and in communion with the greatest Christian think¬ 
ers in their hooks; let them fuse all in the heat of a 
mighty love for men and an overmastering convic¬ 
tion of the power of the gospel to save, and then let 
them plead for decision, speaking as living men unto 
living men. 

There have been great periods of revival in learn¬ 
ing. The Renaissance prepared the way for the 


REVIVAL POWER IN THE CHURCH 251 

Reformation. The past century saw a great out¬ 
burst of scientific discovery. In America art is 
beginning its revival. There are times of ebb and 
flow in business life, and years of great depression 
are followed by periods of wonderful prosperity. 
This law of periodicity has obtained in religion. The 
age of faith has been succeeded by an age of dogma. 
The molten beliefs have run themselves into molds 
and stiffened. Intellectual assent and barren ortho¬ 
doxy have taken the place of a vital experience. 
Then there must come the reaction, the reawakening, 
the revival. 

The course of religion is not that of an uninter¬ 
rupted advance. The opposing powers of worldli¬ 
ness sometimes seem to obstruct it temporarily, until 
it gathers renewed momentum to sweep down all 
barriers. The movements under Moses, Ezra, John 
the Baptist, the apostles, Savonarola, the preaching 
friars, Huss, Wiclif, Luther, Knox, the Puritans, 
Wesley, Whitefield, Edwards, Bellamy, the Ten- 
nents, Finney, Knapp, and Moody are, historically, 
abundant evidence of the recurrence of great tidal 
waves of the Spirit. 

The last century opened in a condition of religious 
paucity and stagnation far more alarming than any¬ 
thing that faces us now. Infidelity was prevalent 
and fashionable. French modes of unbelief were 
greedily adopted. The colleges were hotbeds of 
atheism and irreligion. The churches were dead. 
The people everywhere seemed indifferent. Some 
churches had not known a revival in the twenty-five, 
fifty, or hundred years of their life. Coarseness of 
life and immorality were on the increase. Christi¬ 
anity was regarded as a fable, the future life as a 


252 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


delusion. But God had mercy on our country. 
Sweeping revivals broke out in Kentucky camp meet¬ 
ings, and, spreading through the West, rescued it 
from infidelity and the neglect of the gospel and the 
soul’s needs. 

In intellectual New England the deadness of 
formal respectability was vivified with new life. 
There, and across the Alleghenies, the new converts 
multiplied the membership of the Congregational 
Churches by two, of the Baptists by three, of the 
Presbyterians by four, and of the Methodists by 
seven. The whole religious condition of the colleges 
was completely transformed. In the first thirty 
years of the century there were twenty great 
revivals. In 1831 there were nine hundred conver¬ 
sions in the staid city of New Haven. Fifteen hun¬ 
dred other towns counted up fifty thousand converts 
in five months. Great city churches were founded, 
and consecrated young men flocked to the colleges 
and offered themselves for the Christian ministry. 
Great foreign missionary societies sprang into exist¬ 
ence. In 1837, in Hawaii, seventy-three hundred 
were converted. In 1858, after the feeling of the 
insecurity and vanity of property following the 
panic of 1852, it is estimated that half a million 
people turned to their Saviour. Since our Civil War 
the great meetings conducted by Dwight L. Moody 
and the rise of the young people’s societies have 
manifested the presence of the Spirit. In 1878 
twenty-thousand of the Telugees were converted, 
and a like marvelous movement is still going on 
among other East Indian populations, and is spe¬ 
cially manifested now among the Koreans. 

At present, standing in the second decade of a 


REVIVAL POWER IN THE CHURCH 


253 


new century, feeling the pressing need of some new 
and marvelous exhibition of divine life, all the 
churches everywhere are in a prayerful and expect¬ 
ant attitude. A feeling is taking possession of all 
that ere long the great deeps of human life shall be 
profoundly stirred. All the churches are coming 
together to pray unitedly and plan concertedly. 
Though the minds of our American people seem to 
be taken up with the new dreams of expansion, with 
pride over our place among the great powers in the 
counsels of the earth, where shall we get, except 
from a new and wonderful vitalization of Christi¬ 
anity among us, the moral and spiritual strength 
for our new duties and increased responsibilities? 
Let us not be deceived. We shall in no wise be saved 
by our big populations, our gigantic growth of cities, 
our stronger army and navy, our enlarging wealth 
and civilization. The greater we are, the more we 
need evangelization. The present crisis calls aloud 
for it. There is always a power of greed, political 
corruption, human selfishness and vice at work, and 
in some centers they seem particularly strong just 
at present. Unless counteracted by fresh spiritual 
forces the degradation of the nation is certain and 
imminent. 

Let us be thoroughly convinced that faith in Christ 
is still the power of God unto salvation and is equal 
to the great work our vast, complex civilization 
throws upon it. God is not, for some mysterious 
reason, unwilling to send a twentieth-century Pente¬ 
cost. He is not holding himself out of reach. He is 
“always on the giving hand.” He is always ready 
to act. If there are stoppages and hindrances to his 
grace, the fault is in men; and it behooves us to dis- 


254 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


cover where the obstructions are, both in ourselves 
and in unregenerate hearts, and unite to remove 
them as far as human agency can. 

God’s Spirit is always in need of human coopera¬ 
tion. In prayer meetings we have fervent supplica¬ 
tions for conversions. Then those who have prayed 
leave the church and imagine they have done all. 
There should be more petitions for their own out¬ 
fitting for labor. Jesus told his disciples to pray 
that God would send laborers into his vineyard. 
Then, in answer to their own prayers, they were sent 
out themselves. Would it not be well if we could 
hear some such prayers as this ?—‘‘ Lord, I here dedi¬ 
cate myself to thy service, to help convert some one 
to thee, and I promise to do my duty faithfully. 
Here am I, Lord; send me . 9 ’ 

We thoroughly believe in the statements and argu¬ 
ments of those who plead for a “revival all the year 
’round”—in June as well as in January. We are 
convinced that there ought to be many more oppor¬ 
tunities given for religious decision than are cus¬ 
tomary—invitations following every warm-hearted 
evangelical sermon throughout the course of the 
year. For a long time, when pastor of downtown 
churches, we pursued this plan. We asked, after 
the sermon, for persons holding church letters to 
present them, and for people to take that oppor¬ 
tunity of accepting the vows of religion. Generally 
there was some response—sometimes of those ex¬ 
pected, sometimes of others. This might not happen 
in a country church or the family church of a city, 
but such invitations, we think, are rarely amiss. 
The fathers had a good phrase—“casting the net” 
=r~and we feel that more of our ministers ought to 


REVIVAL POWER IN THE CHURCH 255 

practice more frequently this most essential part of 
the fisherman’s craft. 

But while piety ought to be a thing of normal 
growth and healthy vigor always, and not a spas¬ 
modic thing, with intervals of sickliness and declen¬ 
sion, it is rational to set aside some seasons of the 
year when particular attention should he paid to 
its culture. Many pastors and church workers are 
apt to estimate the results of any revival efforts 
lasting several weeks exclusively by the number of 
converts, and if there is no large ingathering, they 
feel disappointed and depressed, and admit to each 
other that all their services were in vain. But this 
is to ignore other aspects that certainly ought to 
make the meetings seem worth while, and, indeed, 
productive of the highest good. 

Has not the pastor himself been awakened to a 
more deeply religious life, and will not this effect he 
made practically manifest in the more spiritual char¬ 
acter of his pastoral work, and in the more fervent 
and searching evangelistic note in his preaching? 
There is a too common conception that the minister 
is always naturally, and of course, possessed of 
abounding and overflowing piety. But he is as 
human as any of his parishioners, and, in these days, 
when he is anything but a recluse, but has to be in 
the thick of all public movements, and to conduct 
scores of practical church enterprises, there is a 
great drain on nervous force, and he has more than 
ordinary trials and temptations. For one whose 
physical, mental, sympathetic, and moral resources 
are being drawn on so perpetually and exhaustively 
there is undeniable need of reenforcement from 
above. He preaches to others and must needs also 


256 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


preach to himself in the lack of sitting before other 
pulpits. He ministers to others, but who shall be his 
minister! It would be well if some devout brother 
would sometimes call at the parsonage and pray with 
and for his pastor. In the Protestant Episcopal and 
some other churches the clergy occasionally con¬ 
duct 1 1 retreats, ’ ’ during which, for a season, the min¬ 
isters gather and seek by meditation, prayer, and 
conference to realize a richer soul life. Likewise, 
pastors of other churches, in their Ministerial Asso¬ 
ciations or local Conferences, have occasionally held 
such sessions, and, without too much introspection 
or emphasis on asceticism, they have been greatly 
benefited thereby. Who can doubt that, if the 
preacher’s public prayers take on a more yearning 
tone; if his sermons reveal a quickening of vital 
truth in himself, the displacement of any possible 
formality or deadened spiritual discernment by 
something real and dynamic from above, the return 
again and again to the warm-hearted evangelistic 
appeal—who can doubt, in view of this single great 
advantage, that the revival has ‘ ‘ paid ’ ’! 

And in the Church are there not others besides the 
minister who would not be harmed by larger acces¬ 
sions of earnest piety! Are there not many church 
members who almost inevitably gather the dust of 
the world about their souls and need the washing of 
another regeneration! Sometimes we think it won¬ 
derful that even professing Christians keep as near 
Christ as they do. All the week they are played upon 
by the duties, labors, responsibilities, and cares of 
the world which occupies and absorbs them, and 
weighs them down with its accumulations. Their 
minds are frayed, their spirits burdened, and their 


REVIVAL POWER IN THE CHURCH 257 

consciences tempted by the constantly pressing-in 
distractions, inducements, and temptations of their 
environment. Not once, but often, during the year 
do they need refreshment and reinvigoration. They 
ought to get no little of it every Sunday from the 
stated services, and the regular recharging of the 
batteries ought to be supplemented by special seasons 
for the renewal *of the inner consciousness of the 
Divine—the experience of Christ and his grace. 
And any revival 4 ‘pays ’’ that stirs up anew that 
grace within their hearts. 

Do not the officers of the Church, in particular, 
need this reviving, and are they not great gainers 
by it? They carry the financial and material bur¬ 
dens of the Church. Much of their time is given to 
committee work that is not specially inspiring, but 
sometimes rather depressing. There is little in it 
all which helps them in their devotions and religious¬ 
ness. It may sometimes operate in making them 
almost unconsciously think of the Church as simply 
a piece of machinery which must be kept going, - just 
like any business or corporation. Any revival which 
shall bless the official members, make them feel a 
joy, and not a monotony, in their labors, as if by them 
they served the Lord Christ, lead them to fresh con¬ 
secrations and more satisfactory evidences of the 
Holy Spirit’s presence, within the heart of even the 
most “practical” and businesslike deacon, trustee, 
or steward—any revival which has done that has 
obviously “paid,” and paid big dividends. 

Then there are the backsliders of various grades 
in every church. Some are still coming to the Sun¬ 
day service, but only as a custom or a respectability, 
and have lost their first love; others have ceased 


258 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


altogether their church attendance. Sometimes we 
have heard pastors speak almost contemptuously 
and sarcastically of backsliders, as if they were 
“black sheep,” deserving scorn rather than sym¬ 
pathy; as if they should rightfully receive the 
Church’s taboo; as if they were traitors to be stig¬ 
matized. But, certainly, backsliding is no unforgiv¬ 
able offense. It is too common and “respectable” 
to mark the offender as an ecclesiastical outcast. 
We have all at times backslidden more or less. But 
if all the backsliders in any church could be brought 
back into the fold by evangelistic efforts, what a 
glorious consummation that would be! And, in hun¬ 
dreds of cases, if the pastors and church workers 
would take advantage of the previous religious 
experiences of these brethren and sisters, and lov¬ 
ingly urge them to renew their covenants and open 
their hearts again to the old peace and joy they once 
knew, they would be successful. Some, indeed, 
owing to some unfortunate trouble in the church, 
might be bitter and resentful; and some, imagining 
the Church all wrong, may have taken up some anti- 
Christian doctrine or new-fangled fad; but many, 
very many, would be found approachable and sus¬ 
ceptible to the right influences. And any revival 
which would convert over again these hundreds of 
the “lapsed” would abundantly prove that it 
“paid.” 

•. We do not write in this vein as if new converts 
were not one of the main reasons for holding revival 
services. And when they come there is rightfully 
great rejoicing. But we do write it to say emphat¬ 
ically that, even when these cannot be honestly 
counted, the revival is not to be considered nil and 


REVIVAL POWER IN THE CHURCH 259 

time and labor wasted. Every earnest effort in this 
direction has outcomes and recompenses that can 
never be tabulated or appraised. 

In seeking to reach others and bring them into 
the life of religion, both minister and people are 
mightily benefited. The net results of such services 
are not all summed up in the number of conversions, 
few or many, among those without. The pastor, 
preaching upon the fundamental themes of the gos¬ 
pel, has had his own faith and feeling wonderfully 
freshened. His people have listened to the restate¬ 
ment of the great primary Bible truths and truths 
of life which have been as a tonic to their religious 
systems. The quickened current of devotion makes 
its pulse felt in larger and more attentive congre¬ 
gations on the Sabbath and in bigger and better 
prayer meetings. And these effects are not transi¬ 
tory. We have known instances where the prayer 
service, thus stimulated, maintained its attendance 
and temperature throughout the year. Many were 
brought into it and to the public worship who had 
long shown indifference and lived a perfunctory 
Christian life. In every church there are not a few 
who in reality need “converting over again .’ 9 To 
reclaim these and get them thoroughly influenced by 
and interested in the religious life and permanently 
attached to the Church and its work is quite as im¬ 
portant as the winning of new recruits for Christ. 

Many who describe themselves as “belonging to 
the Church by marriage”—whose wives or husbands 
may belong—are affected, converted, and enlist as 
good soldiers of the cross. Many who have been 
coming regularly to the public services for years, 
and who at heart are religious and Christian, but 


260 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


who have never “taken a stand,” are persuaded to 
come out openly on the Lord’s side. Many of the 
young people in the families of the Church find the 
hour of their opportunity to pledge themselves to 
Christ in such helpful meetings. Consequently, we 
believe that whatever the census of converts among 
the openly irreligious, worldly, and godless, such 
special services pay large dividends even in the 
results within the Church. A pastor who thinks he 
is not an evangelist because he has had small success 
in inducing confessedly wicked men to forsake sin 
and become Christ’s followers, ought to yield to no 
discouragement as long as there is such fruitage to 
his ministry as we have described. 

There are few pastors who have not had experi¬ 
ence with a class of men in their churches who are 
conveniently described as “moral men.” The pas¬ 
tor knows them as well as any people in the parish, 
is as intimate with them, and likes them quite as well. 
Generally, they are the husbands of church mem¬ 
bers. They themselves come regularly to all the 
church services and support the Church with con¬ 
stant and cheerful payments. They are evidently 
interested in religion and the Church; but they are 
not on the roll of membership, and have never “given 
in their names.” How shall they be regarded? As 
having no spirituality, no knowledge of God? As 
formalists? As having no other inspiration for con¬ 
duct than a coldly philosophical ethical code? Per¬ 
haps, in some occasional instances, one or all of these 
representations may be true; but, sometimes, none 
of them meet the facts. The pastor who is wise 
enough, in familiar and friendly conversation, to 
discover how these men feel, will often find to his 


REVIVAL POWER IN THE CHURCH 261 

joy a real acquaintance with God, a piety vital if 
not fervent, and comparable in quality to that of 
his average members. For reasons often slight— 
generally some personal difference—these men have 
not united with God’s people, and therein are blame¬ 
worthy. But it cannot be denied that they are real 
and essential Christians, and something better than 
‘ 4 merely moral men,” as the phrase is used in a loose 
and slighting sense. They need to be talked with 
affectionately and persuaded of their duty. In a 
revival service, when the thoughts, ideals, conduct, 
and life of the sinner, alienated from God and dis¬ 
obeying his commands continually, are portrayed, 
they do not feel themselves described or indicated, 
and there is therefore no response. They need to 
be approached and won in a different way. 

The so-called “moral men” of to-day—men who, 
though, for one reason or another, not connected with 
the Church, are still the best of neighbors, the most 
honorable of business men, the most reputable of 
citizens in all civic relations—are very different 
from those of a former century who were thus desig¬ 
nated. In the last of the eighteenth and the begin¬ 
ning of the ninteenth centuries, “moral men” gen¬ 
erally strove to govern their lives by rules, precepts, 
and formulas. Like Franklin, Jefferson, and others, 
they would draw up codes for the regulation of their 
private conduct and try to work to them. The book 
of Proverbs was one of the most quoted of the Bible 
books, and the wise saws of “Poor Richard’s Alma¬ 
nac” and of Tupper’s “Proverbial Philosophy” 
(which ran into its fortieth edition) were vastly 
popular. It was difficult to appeal to men under the 
sway of this species of legalism. 


262 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


But now all that has changed. None—not even 
“moral men”—think of regulating their lives by 
moral codifications and painfully numbered rules. 
They have accepted certain great principles and 
ideals of living, and are guiding themselves by them. 
These fundamental principles are, in the main, those 
of the Christian religion. They are based on a belief 
in God and his judgments, and on a general knowl¬ 
edge and acceptance of the teachings of the Scrip¬ 
tures and of Christian preachers and moralists. The 
inner conscience of the age is broadly Christian 
whenever it asserts itself. 

Consequently, it would seem as if there were in 
existence a much more favorable basis of appeal to 
men who, on the side of morality, are essentially 
Christian, in behalf of a definite culture of the par¬ 
ticular spiritual half of their natures, and for an 
identification with and participation in specific reli¬ 
gious work in building up the kingdom of heaven. 

But, perhaps, there is still another class who fur¬ 
nish the greatest trial to the faith of a pastor in the 
necessity and efficiency of revivals. We refer to 
those who may be described as “rootless Christians .’ 9 
The parable of the sower is one which is of special 
interest to every Christian minister. He has to deal 
with all the classes so graphically and penetratingly 
described by Jesus. No people, perhaps, give him 
more concern than those illustrated by the seeds that 
“fell upon the rocky places, where they had not 
much earth: and straightway they sprang up, be¬ 
cause they had no deepness of earth: and when the 
sun was risen, they were scorched; and because they 
had no root, they withered away.” Such auditors 
hear the word and straightway with joy receive it; 


REVIVAL POWER IN THE CHURCH 


yet they have no root in themselves, but endure for 
a while. The soil was spread thinly over an under¬ 
lying stratum of rock which heated quickly and 
induced rapid growth, but could furnish no rootage. 

Such quickly responsive but shallow and unendur¬ 
ing characters are the perplexity and despair of 
every Christian worker. They start so well; they 
are so enthusiastic and give such glorious promise 
that they raise the most exuberant hopes. They do 
so finely for a little while that the pastor congratu¬ 
lates himself and them upon such splendid conver¬ 
sions. And then, all at once, they give up and go 
to pieces. They have no staying power. They are 
easily discouraged and they discourage everybody 
else. They bring disheartenment to faithful min¬ 
isters and to their fellow converts. They com¬ 
menced with a dash, they 4 ‘were running well,’’ as 
Paul said to the Galatians, and then, on a sudden, 
they turn back to the “weak and beggarly rudi¬ 
ments’ ’ of worldliness. 

Jesus must have had much experience with super¬ 
ficial characters who followed him for a little time, 
and then, when they heard some “hard saying,” 
turned back and walked no more with him. They 
came to him with the bravest assurance that they 
would follow him whithersoever he went, but they 
were not able to stand the simplest testing. They 
had thin, emotional, mercurial, irresolute tempera¬ 
ments, easily swayed this way and that, and they 
had a fundamental lack of ballasting in intellect and 
will. They heard those commandments of Christ, 
they warmly commended them for their truth and 
reasonableness, and then they went otf and entirely 
failed to observe them. A little less fulsome ap- 


264 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


proval and a little more quiet obedience and ful¬ 
fillment would have been much more welcome. They 
were like men building houses on the sands. 

But Jesus did not allow himself to lose heart or 
hope through the instability and inconstancy of these 
volatile disciples. For them too, in their weakness 
and changeableness, he must have had a great 
compassion. Their souls were as needful of being 
saved as those of any. He must have had an 
infinite patience with them in their waywardness 
and vacillation, in the hope of finally anchoring them 
in stable convictions, enduring faith, and lasting 
loyalty. 

Every pastor must reckon with a large proportion 
of such temperaments in every revival, and he must 
not allow himself to be either unduly elated over the 
extravagant promise nor unreasonably depressed 
over the disappointing outcome of such conversions. 
It is a common observation that, in every work of 
grace, there are a certain number in every com¬ 
munity who are regularly converted at the opening 
services of each revival season, and then as sys¬ 
tematically fall away after a little. Of course the 
temptation of earnest ministers and other believers 
is to give way to something of a pitying contempt 
for such weak brothers and sisters, and to designate 
them as “feather-weights” who are scarcely worth 
more attention. But even these must be borne with, 
labored with constantly in love, in the hope of ulti¬ 
mately establishing them in grace. 

Such surface stirrings of human hearts are not the 
results entirely of any merely shilly-shally methods 
of any sensational preachers or evangelists. They 
happen quite as frequently during the faithful labors 


REVIVAL POWER IN THE CHURCH 


265 


of the most devoted pastors and the most approved 
and unexceptional evangelists. 

It was our fortune at one time to be appointed to 
a church which had been once served by one of the 
best evangelistic preachers the Methodist Episcopal 
Church has had in recent times. His whole heart 
was in the work day and night, and he loved souls 
with a veritable passion. He was on the trail of men 
all the time, seeking their salvation. During the 
three years of his pastorate some four hundred con¬ 
versions or more were reported. And yet, when 
one looked for these on the church membership roll, 
only a handful of them could be found. Other pas¬ 
tors had not been able to bring them into the Church 
fold to remain there. What might have happened 
if Doctor P. could have remained we cannot say. 
We attempted to win back to participation in 
church life and religious experience many who were 
on the church register or in the probationers 7 lists, 
but without much avail. They had not been to the 
church, they said, “since Doctor P.’s time.” The 
reiterated phrase at last became as monotonous as 
that of “befo 7 the wall” down South. Indeed, we 
found it easier to win fresh converts than to get 
back these who had once made their profession, but 
who had quickly grown cold and indifferent. 

Others followed Doctor P., some of the most 
notable evangelistic preachers, who brought to their 
help other noted evangelists and left lists on the 
church books of two or three hundred converts. But 
the same thing happened again, and the question of 
46 What becomes of our probationers?” was surely 
an acute one there. These remarks are not intended 
by us to cast any reflection or to mean any dispar- 


266 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


agement upon these worthy and justly honored and 
beloved men. We are speaking of an inevitable con¬ 
dition which faces even the best workers and for 
which all should prepare themselves. It must be 
reckoned with everywhere. It is one of the hardest 
problems any pastor has to solve—how to be patient 
with these fickle, unstable, and trying converts, how 
to sympathize with their weakness and waverings, 
how to strengthen them in purpose, will, and fidelity. 

And even a profounder problem is started by this 
discussion: It is comparatively easy to stir the sensi¬ 
bilities of the thin-soiled person with not much depth 
to his nature and with little chance for the truth to 
find abiding rootage. But will it not require a more 
thoughtful preaching, a more careful and reason¬ 
able putting of the truth, a more considerate study, 
reflection, and dealing to bring to Christ those of 
more serious and tenacious and less fluttering and 
capricious minds, those who act slowly after long 
consideration and only under stress of deep convic¬ 
tion, but who remain stanch to the end ? The test of 
a successful revival is in the number of such who 
have been turned permanently into the good way. 
These are the good-ground hearers who listen to the 
message, and understand it, and really produce fruit. 
They are not to be won by any mechanical inventions, 
by any religious claptrap. But the gaining of one 
such is a victory for Christ to be gloried in. And 
that is a great revival wherein even a score or less 
of such are bound forever to a faithful following of 
the Master. 


CHAPTER X 

The Preacher and the Revival 

To awaken souls lying dormant, to vivify the 
comatose, is the great function of the preacher. Out 
of the true minister there flows a life-giving current 
which stimulates into new activity. He cannot 
create, but he can resuscitate. Browning depicts 
how the poet makes dead facts live again. Project¬ 
ing into them his “surplusage of soul,” breathing 
on and reluming the “half-burned-out, all but quite- 
quenched wicks o’ the lamp stationed for temple- 
service on this earth,” he 

Makes new beginnings, starts the dead alive, 

Completes the incomplete, and saves the thing. 

He then compares the marvel wrought by the poet 
to the miracle performed by the ancient prophet. 
His description might well apply to the utter giving 
of his own vitality by a pastor in the communication 
of moral and spiritual life to those lying dead in 
trespasses and sins, or half-dead in soul lethargy: 

Was not Elisha once?— 

Who hade them lay his staff on a corpse-face. 

There was no voice, no hearing; he went in 
Therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, 

And prayed unto the Lord: and he went up 
And lay upon the corpse, dead on the couch. 

And put his mouth upon its mouth, his eyes 
Upon its eyes, his hands upon its hands, 

And stretched him on the flesh; the flesh waxed warm; 

And he returned, walked to and fro the house, 

And went up, stretched him on the flesh again. 

And the eyes opened. ’Tis a credible feat 
With the right man and way. 

267 


268 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


A mission preacher of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church has expressed himself strongly on the sub¬ 
ject of conviction and conversion. He believes that 
the nerve of any spiritual weakness of the Church is 
the neglect on the part -of its clergy to preach the 
doctrine of sin and repentance. “ There can be no 
question/’ he thinks, “that superficial views of sin 
constitute an insuperable barrier to the understand¬ 
ing of the gospel of Christ, and the fact that ‘the 
modern view of the world,’ as it is called, is so 
largely inimical to any profound appreciation of the 
radical nature of sin ought to arouse the ministers 
of Jesus Christ to a more strenuous presentation of 
the Christian view. ’ ’ 

His own experience in conducting his mission is 
stated in these strong terms: “The faithful and 
repeated presentation from the pulpit of the Bible 
view of sin—ita nature, its consequences, its penalty 
—followed by the preaching of the cross, as God’s 
remedy for sin, and of repentance and faith as the 
divine method of realizing the benefit of the great 
redemption, uniformly produces ‘great searching of 
heart,’ and issues in the awakening of men and 
women to new spiritual life, or else to a deeper and 
more vital Christian experience. ” Has not this been 
the testimony from the very beginning? Sometimes 
certain ministers are referred to as “not believing 
in revivals,” and it may be that there are those who 
have so characterized themselves. But it is difficult 
to think that any true minister would use such un¬ 
qualified language. He, as well as laymen who so 
speak, probably has in mind certain aspects of so- 
called revivals which offend him in method and 
results, and do not seem to be accompanied by any 


THE PREACHER AND THE REVIVAL 269 

permanent moral or religious improvement. There 
have been “evangelists” of self-advertisement, who 
adopted mechanical and eccentric procedures. It 
might look as if they cared more for numbers than 
for the reality of conversions. They easily move 
the volatile, but drive away the more thoughtful and 
serious. 

While deep feeling and profound excitement are 
normal in a great religious awakening, it is an act 
of folly to 'try to work up an assembly into a sense¬ 
less hysteria no more resembling piety than the cata¬ 
lepsies of the Indian fakirs. The evangelist of the 
future will, we believe, combine in due proportion 
the appeals to reason, conscience, emotion, and spirit¬ 
ual faculty and need. But-we cannot dictate the ways 
of the Spirit. Doubtless there will be conformity to 
the new needs of a new age. But we must always be 
prepared for surprises. The winds of God blow 
where they list. However the twentieth century 
Pentecost may come, let it come. 

It is undoubtedly true that some preachers are 
preeminently teachers rather than evangelists. The 
Scriptures recognize the distinctions in the gifts of 
the Spirit. But direct evangelism ought never to be 
put aside by these as something in which they have 
no interest or concern. There is a place, without 
question, in the Church and under its authorization, 
for an order of evangelists. They must be men of 
unquestioned piety, skilled in presenting the truth, 
powerful in appeal, in the best sense tactful and 
resourceful, right in doctrine, and free from repel¬ 
lent eccentricities and inconsistencies. Yet each pas¬ 
tor ought to feel for himself a desire for the conver¬ 
sion of those in his congregation and circle of 


270 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


acquaintances, whom he knows and loves, more 
natural and fervent than could any evangelist, how¬ 
ever sincere, coming in as a stranger and soon to 
depart. 

Many preachers, as they compare themselves with 
the early Puritan divines who had such blood- 
earnestness, who preached with the pungency and 
fearlessness of the ancient prophets, who yearned in 
pain over the souls of men, and felt poignantly 
afflicted when any died out of the peace of God— 
many to-day are longing to feel the same burden and 
passion. They are convinced that the preaching of 
the last half century has been too exclusively con¬ 
fined, even to repletion, to those already in the 
Church. This has worked to keep away the uncon¬ 
verted who might have come. They were not ad¬ 
dressed. Their need was seldom spoken to. If they 
had any serious thought, it was never caught by any¬ 
thing in the sermon. 

Much sensationalism has gradually crept into 
many pulpits. The criterion of success has been the 
ability to draw a crowd. If any minister start out 
with the dominant idea of being pleasing, if he throw 
out baits for applause, if his foremost thought is 
popularity, there will be little real earnestness in his 
exhortations. He will be more absorbed in selecting 
“catchy’’ sermon-titles and turning pretty phrases 
and witty paragraphs to win a smile or compliment 
therewith than to grapple with men’s consciences 
and bring them face to face with duty and God. Such 
a man is doomed to vulgarize his ministry from the 
start. Verily he has his reward; but it is not that 
of an ambassador of Christ searching hearts and 
speaking as though Christ himself did entreat. 


THE PREACHER AND THE REVIVAL 


271 


Then, too, the thought of the modern pastor is 
drawn off into a hundred other channels of discus¬ 
sion—sociological, philanthropic, municipal, na¬ 
tional, educational, reformatory—all of them impor¬ 
tant, and having a direct hearing on applied Chris¬ 
tianity. But it is possible to preempt every Sabbath 
in the year as some cause’s day. There must really 
be more time for that direct consideration of the 
main purpose of the gospel—to save men’s souls 
from going down into hell and to bring them here 
and now into the consciousness of being sons of God. 
The old preachers kept to the great themes of the 
Bible. Life is too short to cover'the whole range of 
the encyclopedia in the pulpit. Ministers must rig¬ 
idly choose their themes and texts in order to con¬ 
centrate on. the fundamental propositions. 

In some quarters it has been boldly affirmed that 
the religion of the future is to express itself exclu¬ 
sively in intellectual forms. But this thought, which 
would bar out the emotions, has no place among our 
evangelical churches. Radicals who have tried to 
nourish the spirits of men on negations of what they 
styled “the outworn orthodox conceptions,” who 
gave theological or scientific philosophizings or lit¬ 
erary disquisitions on moral themes, have had only 
a barren outcome. Revivals do not proceed out of 
such a cold, unspiritualized atmosphere any more 
than roses bloom on the Muir Glacier. 

There is no inconsiderable number of pastors in 
every evangelical communion who feel somehow a 
lack of ability to conduct successful revival services. 
It is not that they are not interested in the conver¬ 
sion of men; not that they would not gladly he instru¬ 
mental at any cost in leading men from their sins to 


272 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


their Saviour. They secretly bewail their inapti¬ 
tude for a work that they admit frankly is indis¬ 
pensable, and envy the gifts of others by which many 
are brought into the kingdom. They are thoroughly 
convinced of the truth and reasonableness of the 
position so often affirmed that every preacher ought 
to be also an evangelist, continually winning men to 
Christ. And yet they have to sadly confess to them¬ 
selves that they do not know how to do it, at least 
in the conventional methods—that their genius does 
not serve them, try as they may. 

These men are usually those of a rather wide cul¬ 
ture and of a very reflective turn of mind. When¬ 
ever they take up any Scripture text for explanation 
and enforcement the sermon almost inevitably runs 
itself into philosophical molds. In their minds it 
quite invariably connects itself with the findings of 
men of former times and with the thought and reason 
of all thinkers in every field of human investigation 
and activity. It naturally seeks enforcement and 
illustration in the rich regions of literature and 
poetry with which their minds are familiar. They 
employ these quotations, not merely for the sake of 
being literary or of furnishing embellishment to 
their discourses. They are convinced that they all 
help to make the truth more attractive and persua¬ 
sive. Their particular segment of truth, which they 
are trying to enforce, is seen to fit into and to be a 
part of the universal truth and truths of all ages, 
and so to gain a vast assurance of reasonableness. 

And yet it must be acknowledged that such ser¬ 
mons are somewhat too elaborate and ornate to bring 
men to a decision about their sins and to draw them 
Christward. The appeal that is to waken men to 


THE PREACHER AND THE REVIVAL 273 

repentance must be something more direct than that 
—something that shall tonch the emotions while it 
moves directly on the will and stirs the conscience 
profoundly. The preacher feels himself, at times, 
that he must guard his tendency to philosophize over 
Christian doctrines and biblical texts, and indulge 
more in heart-to-heart exhortation. But he is still 
held back from it. 

Furthermore, he is restrained from speaking di¬ 
rectly to men privately about their souls by some 
sort of a reticence which arises in part from a feel¬ 
ing of respect and reverence for the innermost pri¬ 
vacies of the individual. He cannot bring himself to 
intrude within the sacred sanctuary of men’s hearts 
unless invited. Doubtless he ought to overcome such 
a feeling, but with him it is an instinct that asserts 
itself powerfully and which he thinks ought to be 
heeded. At least he finds himself utterly unable to 
cultivate that blustering familiarity that comes up 
to a man with a ‘ ‘How’s your soul to-day, brother!” 
and he shrinks from falling into any perfunctory 
and businesslike dealing with men in their sacredest 
and most intimate concerns. In short, he feels that 
he simply cannot bring himself to the part that is 
so frequently urged upon him and which is evidently 
expected of him. 

But meanwhile he is listened to by great congre¬ 
gations with growing interest and profit. The people 
are fed by his message. If there are those who 
would contend that, if he cannot do the work of an 
evangelist, he has no right to be in the Church, there 
would be a great number who would rise up to wit¬ 
ness to the good he had accomplished for them in 
their lives and to stand for his right to hold a Chris- 


274 


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tian pulpit. And the man himself, while admitting 
his defects on certain lines, might well contend that 
every man has not the same talent and that the Lord 
has need of every kind of a worker in his vineyard. 
He might point to the twelve of the disciple group, 
and show how varied they were in their mental 
make-up, and that doubtless Peter would prove a 
more successful evangelist than the philosophical 
John, the practical James, or the rationalizing 
Thomas. He might say that the Scriptures them¬ 
selves speak of men of many functions—apostles, 
prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. With¬ 
out turning away altogether from the evangelistic 
role, he may frankly say that, like a Brooks, a Storrs, 
or a Gladden, he must follow the indication of his 
own natural bent, and, as a teacher of the divine 
mysteries, serve his Lord in his own way. Certainly 
there is need enough always for such seers, looking 
into the heart of the revelation of God, and the world 
and the Church cannot afford to repudiate their 
ministry. They may show the profound meaning 
for everday living of some familiar or overlooked 
text; they may speak the word on some agitating 
social or national question which shall set humanity 
in right ways; they may illuminate the most perplex¬ 
ing and fundamental problems of moral conduct for 
individuals and communities; and, in their case as 
in so many others, wisdom is justified of her children, 
and they need no apology or defense. 

Nevertheless, ought they not to strive to be in 
some way evangelists after their own kind? We 
believe they should, and we are confident that they 
could learn to do more of this work than they now 
think. Just as the exhorter would improve his dis- 


THE PREACHER AND THE REVIVAL 275 

course frequently by injecting more thought into it, 
so they can strive to make their sermons a little more 
practical, and not to conclude even the most philo¬ 
sophical discourse without bringing it to a head in 
some pointed and fervent appeal to line up with its 
truth. And they need not feel that all evangelistic 
work needs to be done in any one stereotyped way. 
Both in public discourse and in private conversa¬ 
tion they ought to feel at perfect liberty to be physi¬ 
cians of souls after their own manner, and not after 
any general prescription. They might wisely seek 
from time to time the assistance and advice, as ex¬ 
perts in that particular field, of some brother pastor 
or some evangelist who has had great success, along 
right and uncriticizable modes, in winning men. 
They can pursue, both with children, young people, 
and adults, the “cultural” method of leading into 
a religious experience. And then let them not be at 
all disturbed by the insinuations or open declara¬ 
tions of any that they have no business in the min¬ 
istry. They will be able to say, * ‘ Henceforth let no 
man trouble me” and “Who art thou that judgest 
the servant of another? To his own lord he standeth 
or falleth. Yea, he shall be made able to stand; for 
the Lord hath power to make him stand. ’ 9 

But while so vindicating himself let him never 
lose the thought from his mind that he is an ambas¬ 
sador for Christ, an advocate pleading before men 
that they accept salvation on the gospel terms. We 
listened once, in a celebrated theological sehool, to 
a lecturer on the art of preaching. He wound up 
his discourse by telling a story of an old clergyman 
who asked a younger brother whether he loved to 
preach. The answer was an enthusiastic affirmative. 


276 


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“But,” continued the older man, “do you love the 
men to whom you preach !’ ’ The question impressed 
us as a peculiarly pertinent and searching one. It 
is an admirable quality in a young minister to be 
absorbed in his profession; to have a passion for 
theological problems and general religious thought; 
to have an irresistible inclination to make each ser¬ 
mon the best possible presentment of its truth, and, 
in preparation, by reading and reflection, as well 
as in delivery, to satisfy duty, conscience, and a 
legitimate pride. His life and happiness are in this 
effort. But one may be imaginably so taken up with 
these things—with the scholar’s and speaker’s ambi¬ 
tion, with love of his professional work in itself—as 
to think principally or only of it and of the sermon as 
an artistic product. This may happen while he is 
hardly sensible of it. He loves his task—his thinking, 
research, writing, and the joyous fervor of utterance. 
But does he love the men to whom he is speaking! 
Does he think of them and of their good, or is he 
thinking of his sermon and his delivery! Perhaps the 
two often go together and successfully blend. We do 
not accuse the preacher of undue self-consciousness, 
and doubtless the sermon will do good even when 
little thought has been concentrated directly on the 
hearers. But who can doubt that if, in addition to a 
passionate attachment to the truth and to his call¬ 
ing and art, the minister joins an intense love for the 
people to whom he preaches and a fervent desire to 
help them by every sermon spoken, his influence 
would be multiplied many times ! He must be some¬ 
thing more than a professional man, however fine 
and exalted; he must be a shepherd of souls. 

It behooves every preacher to question himself 


THE PREACHER AND THE REVIVAL 


277 


closely as to his motives for entering the ministry. 
In these days of large churches and comfortable sup¬ 
port there may occasionally arise the query whether 
our students in the theological seminaries and our 
young ministers (and frequently those who are not 
so young) do not think and talk too much about the 
prospects of fine churches and big salaries, and the 
chance of being considered “renowned pulpit ora¬ 
tors’ ’ and of becoming the petted ministers of rich 
and cultured parishes. There may be nothing in 
all this. But, sometimes, we have heard rumors that 
information along these lines was more carefully col¬ 
lected by candidates for the ministry than seemed 
compatible with an entire consecration to the service 
of Christ. We think there are few who have not 
been influenced at times by such considerations. It 
would be well if every pastor should reflect upon that 
question of his earliest ordination: “Do you trust 
that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to 
take upon you the office of the ministry in the Church 
of Christ, to serve God for the promoting of his glory 
and the edifying of his people?” 

John Wesley, in his “Address to the Clergy,” has 
some pointed sentences on this subject. He says: 
“Would it be possible for a parent to go through 
the pain and fatigue of bearing and bringing up 
even one child were it not for that vehement affection 
which the Creator has given for that very end?” 
Similarly the minister must have “a large measure 
of that inexpressible affection” for souls. “He, 
therefore, must be utterly void of understanding, 
must be a madman of the highest order, who, on any 
consideration whatever, undertakes this office while 
he is a stranger to this affection. ’ 9 The pastor is to 


278 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


put to himself such searching questions as these: 
“What was my intention in taking upon me this 
office and ministry? Was it always, and is it now, 
wholly and solely to glorify God and save souls? 
Had I at first, have I now, no secular view, no eye 
to honor or preferment ? to a plentiful income; or, at 
least, a competency? a warm and comfortable live¬ 
lihood? ... Do I love God with all my soul and 
strength, and my neighbor, every man, as myself? 
Does this love swallow me up, possess me whole, 
constitute my supreme happiness? Do I feel such 
a concern for the glory of God, and such a thirst 
after the salvation of men, that I am ready to do 
anything, however contrary to my natural incli¬ 
nation, to part with anything, however agreeable to 
me, to suffer anything, however grievous to flesh and 
blood, so that I may save one soul from hell? Is 
this my ruling temper at all times and in all places ? 
Does it make all my labor light? If not, what a 
weariness it is—what a drudgery! ’ ’ 

This is the language of a high devotion and of a 
noble self-sacrifice which produced a race of spirit¬ 
ual heroes. It came as a rebuke and judgment to a 
secularized and mammonized clergy in the Estab¬ 
lished Church. We are persuaded that much of it 
remains with us yet; but in the midst of so much 
churchly prosperity there is a constant temptation 
to be looking for “the better appointments”—a 
temptation which churches may be constantly 
strengthening through alluring offers. Let us all 
pray that the old ideal may not be lowered and that 
the ministry of the Church of Christ may still have 
the “single eye” and the devoted heart. 

We have been much interested in reading a sermon 


THE PREACHER AND THE REVIVAL 279 

preached at the Philadelphia Divinity School of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church by the Right Reverend 
Alexander H. Vinton, D.D., from the text: ‘ 4 Sanctify 
them through thy truth [marginal reading, “Conse¬ 
crate them in the truth”] : thy word is truth.” He 
comments on the cry from the churches for leader¬ 
ship in the ministry—“the man with the seer’s eye, 
the prophet’s voice, the directing energy, the com¬ 
pelling personality, that will expound, convince, in¬ 
spire, and, marching in the van, bring his fellows 
forward in the right way undeterred by sinister 
shapes of evil, unconquered by the appalling hin¬ 
drances to progress.” He reminds us of the per¬ 
sistent criticism, the accusations and chidings of 
secular and ecclesiastical journals—that “the clergy 
are inadequate for their work”; “they cannot rise to 
the greatness of their opportunity.” 

But perhaps too much is being demanded. The 
theological schools are asked to furnish the theologi¬ 
cal specialist and the parish minister for plain and 
practical people from the same institution. The 
preacher is supposed to be at home in economics, 
politics, high finance, national policies, the domain 
of psychologist, anthropologist, and biologist, and to 
be quite familiar with questions of capital and labor, 
factory laws, sanitary regulations, education, and 
much else. All this is to be added to his acquaintance 
with the whole range of theologic lore, the realm of 
missionary endeavor, the study of biblical criticism 
and comparative religion, and provision for the 
spiritual wants of average human nature. There is 
danger of expecting, under public demand, too much 
from any man, and of mistaking where true leader¬ 
ship in the spiritual life lies. A minister should be 


280 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


a specialist in religion, and to cover the field of all 
things knowable is an impossible task. He simply 
becomes a superficialist. 

Dr. Vinton thinks there must be more concentra¬ 
tion for the definite work of a clergyman, while mak¬ 
ing all the sciences and philosophies contribute to a 
service yielded in behalf of man for Jesus’ sake. 
There is great need for hours of reflection and per¬ 
sonal examination. If students and ministers are 
to he always under pressure, “where shall we get 
our spiritual leaven, with no time to meditate, com¬ 
mune with nature, see visions, and evolve high ideals 
in silent reflection ?” This age is in too much of a 
hurry for visible results. Under the insistent call 
for “able preachers, who will draw well,” the temp¬ 
tation comes to the clergy to be “up-to-date” and 
smart. They may thus become lamentably thin, re¬ 
issuing in sermon the latest discussions of news¬ 
papers and reviews as their freshest thought; dar¬ 
ing in destructive theological criticism with no con¬ 
structive betterment for what has been thrown down, 
and, led on by a personal success, to use the Church 
as a theater where self delights to occupy the center 
of the stage. 

Then there is the demand for “a man of tact,” for 
“a man of executive ability—a good administrator,” 
etc. The temptation here is to “work with heels 
instead of head, and believe that busyness brings 
beatitude.” But, primarily, the man in holy orders 
is called to the cure of souls. “He is to pack richly 
with meaning the empty shell of that conventual 
term—a man of God.” Believing that the minister 
should be a type of the highest manhood, intellec¬ 
tually equipped by nature and education to meet and 


THE PREACHER AND THE REVIVAL 281 

win appreciation from his peers in secular life, a 
man clear-eyed, broad-minded, practical, virtuous, 
and sympathetic, Dr. Vinton yet laments that so sel¬ 
dom one hears from the churches a request for the 
first desirable quality in a preacher: “We want a 
man of consecrated life, whose walk and conversa¬ 
tion witness to holiness.” 

He represents the tired worshiper, out of his soul’s 
craving, as saying: “I don’t want to go to church to 
hear what has rung in my ears all the week; the 
reiteration of topics, a better presentation of which 
I can stay at home and read in magazine and news¬ 
paper.” This man wants a divine uplift, a quick¬ 
ened sensibility for his soul’s health, a new inspi¬ 
ration to live as becomes a son of God with an im¬ 
mortal being. We would emphasize what Dr. Vinton 
says about the necessity of presenting the primary 
truths of the nature and being of God, of man’s rela¬ 
tion to him, of human accountability and eternal 
responsibility for action, of the meaning and power 
of Christ crucified—all set forth, not in formal 
phrase, but burning with conviction, and in forms 
sympathetic with and adapted to the understanding 
of to-day. There is a great charm in the picture he 
draws of the ideal minister for our time, facing every 
issue without compromise; translating and interpret¬ 
ing the significance of the years and their results by 
the power of holiness as a revelation of God’s will; 
animated by an inextinguishable enthusiasm, an un¬ 
shaken faith, an inexhaustible hope; living in an 
atmosphere of heaven, and carrying it with him 
among men unconsciously, as the physician the scent 
of healing medicine; speaking, like Moses with the 
Lord, face to face, as a man speaketh with his friend. 


282 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


God grant that the numbers of such truly conse¬ 
crated ministers, seeing clearly their mission and 
feeling their call, may be raised up in our own gene¬ 
ration ! 

So far from it being the fact that the power of the 
pulpit is dying out, it must seem to every discerning 
mind that never in the history of our country was 
the voice of the man of true convictions, speaking 
with the authority springing from full comprehen¬ 
sion and information and clearest ethical insight, so 
commanding as it is to-day. Here, as everywhere, 
there is the widest difference between the man who 
is trying to say something and the man who has 
something to say. Clear thought, earnest feeling, 
moral discernment, spiritual impulse, manly person¬ 
ality in the pulpit—never was there greater need for 
them, never was there larger call and field. 

It would seem as if the challenge of the hour would 
be heeded by more young men of first-class abilities 
desiring to serve their generation. Pastors and col¬ 
lege professors and presidents can do much in call¬ 
ing the attention of generous-minded youth to the 
ministry as an exalted life-calling, full of the noblest 
possibilities for good. In our Christian homes 
parents ought more frequently to turn the thoughts 
of their sons in that direction. In former times it 
was the dearest wish and prayer of many a father 
and mother that their son should choose the ministry 
for his vocation, and when the decision was made the 
joy and pride were correspondingly great. We fear 
that parents to-day are not so desirous along this 
line, but are rather anxious that their boys should 
get into positions where they can amass wealth 
rather speedily, and perhaps share it with father and 


THE PREACHER AND THE REVIVAL 


283 


mother. We need a revival of the old-time feeling 
in this matter. 

In the old days a young man not infrequently had 
not decided “what he was going to be” until the 
end of his senior year in college. Lately we were 
told it often happens that, even in the preparatory 
schools, bright young men of to-day are choosing 
their courses of study with a view to their future 
careers. Then, afterward, when the subject of the 
ministry is broached to them, they declare that it 
is impossible to consider it—that they cannot afford 
to throw away all the preparation they have made 
for another calling. There must, therefore, be an 
early beginning if the Church is to have its proper 
chance in securing the finest minds and bravest, most 
consecrated hearts for its service. There must be 
more fearless men standing in the pulpit, men who 
will dare to proclaim the truth directly and uncom¬ 
promisingly. A correspondent of a Jewish journal 
heard Dr. Frank Gunsaulus, at Winona Lake one 
summer, as he was speaking to two thousand minis¬ 
ters in the Bible course. The gist of his reflections 
was that the minister of to-day must be fearless in 
unmasking evil wherever he sees it, and that if he 
did not make plain the great difference between good 
and evil, the churches would soon be empty of their 
thinking men and women. 

This Hebrew writer avows his suspicion that the 
churches are empty just because of this kind of 
preaching. The people, he fears, do not want to be 
told of their shortcomings; but he thinks it better 
that the churches be empty than that the minister 
should fail to do his duty. The minister may be 
called a busybody, a common, everyday meddler, 


284 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


but it is not always the sermon that pleases the most 
that is the best. The prophets of old, declares this 
Israelite, did not hesitate to pry into the public and 
private life of the people with whom they had to 
deal. They spoke plainly of flagrant transgressions, 
calling a spade a spade. The pulpit must lay bare 
sin and wrong in low and high places and guide the 
ethical life of the people in clear and forceful terms. 

Not only must there be this note of vigorous, manly 
preaching, but there must be, in nurse fashion, a 
definite inculcation of gospel teaching, a clear indoc¬ 
trination of the hearers. We were lately impressed 
with a leading editorial in the Methodist Times of 
London on “A New Departure in Evangelistic 
Work.” The conviction has come to some of the 
foremost workers in our English Wesleyanism that 
one of the chief reasons of retardation in revival 
work is the subtle spirit of doubt and unbelief that 
has inoculated the minds of many of the most 
thoughtful of the rising generation, and which af¬ 
fects, too, many in middle life. Consequently, some 
of the prominent preachers have begun at the foun¬ 
dations, and are delivering sermons on the existence 
of God, the divinity and grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, the revelation in the Scriptures, the immor¬ 
tality of the soul, etc. It may be carelessly affirmed 
that no one will be converted through sermons of 
such profound theological nature, which would seem 
to appeal chiefly to the intellect. And yet it must 
be admitted that, for certain classes, and these the 
very ones carrying large influence, and whom, there¬ 
fore, it is very desirable, both for their sake and 
ours, to have on the side of Christianity, the ordinary 
evangelistic appeals will carry very little weight if 


THE PREACHER AND THE REVIVAL 285 

the groundwork of them is essentially nullified by 
persistent and fundamental doubts in the hearers. 

Nothing is gained but everything is lost by an 
unreasonable denunciation of this sometimes unwill¬ 
ing skepticism in which many reflecting minds, in 
this age of science and criticism which have unspar¬ 
ingly opened every supposedly settled belief, find 
themselves enmeshed. As the Times, with rare dis¬ 
cretion, says: “The first impulse of a chivalrous 
onlooker is to sympathize and delicately help to the 
recovery of self-possession and serenity. Such help 
may be given to bewildered minds, and will be given 
more successfully if we admit the existence of diffi¬ 
culties. Why should we not recognize that the diffi¬ 
culty and vastness of the problems of faith bear 
witness to the greatness of the soul, and to the future 
which lies before us in the purpose of God? Why 
should we not ask our young inquirers to see in their 
own helpless bewilderment an evidence of the gran¬ 
deur of the truth, concerning which they are in doubt? 
Ideas which can be understood and proved in half 
an hour are peddling and commonplace, while 
eternity may be opened to the soul dazzled ‘by excess 
of light.’ For our own comfort let us bear in mind 
this feature of the state of mind in many of our 
young folks.” 

It may be that the situation in America is not 
parallel with that in Great Britain, and that none 
of our evangelistic difficulties lie in this direction. 
Nevertheless, it is worth thinking about, if not for 
every church, at least for some peculiarly situated. 
And, on general principles, we are in favor of ser¬ 
mons with “strong meat” in them; and we think, 
if put with clearness, simplicity, and earnestness, 


286 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


they are far more acceptable to the people than the 
44 neat little essay’’ kind of discourses, or the exclu¬ 
sive presentation of good but quite subordinate 
Scriptural teachings. And such rock-bottom discus¬ 
sions of the Christian creed need not be merely intel¬ 
lectual and void of elements that shall stir the heart 
and conscience to the depths. A sermon which should 
state luminously, logically, persuasively, the great 
compelling reasons for belief in a Divine Being 
whom we may rightly call Father, might, with appro¬ 
priateness and tremendous force, conclude with a 
demonstration of man’s duty to love, serve, and obey 
such a God, and a tender entreaty to turn toward him 
in repentance and faith. A sermon on the divinity 
of Christ could be made overpowering in its practi¬ 
cal application on the obligation of all to surrender 
to such a Saviour and follow him forever. A ser¬ 
mon on the inevitable penalties of sin, the sure 
rewards of righteousness, the reasonableness of the 
hope of immortality would put every listener face 
to face with the most solemn and awful alternatives. 

All preachers cannot do this work equally well. 
For, if the first part of the sermon is to deal with 
real, solid argument, and not in declamations or 
flimsy reasonings easily brushed aside, it will take 
the most patient and prolonged study. The elabora¬ 
tion of a cogent demonstration in the face of modern 
objections is a slow and difficult process. Many 
know that there are sufficient reasons for faith 
though they are not enough trained and skilled to 
state them in orderly fashion themselves. The 
writer we are quoting utters his warning on this 
point in these words: “Devout men must feel some 
solicitude and fear when they notice the lightness 


THE PREACHER AND THE REVIVAL 


287 


with which men attempt to discuss and solve the 
deepest problems of life. For often, perhaps, prob¬ 
lems to which no human mind is fully equal are 
approached without men being aware of all that is 
involved; the labor, patience, and cautious correc¬ 
tion necessary, the consequences of mistake both to 
oneself and others. Men make their assertions on 
great and mysterious subjects with all the gayety 
and brilliant exaggeration which befit a controversy 
on some matter of taste. Besides, it is evident 
enough that love of discussion is not the same as love 
of truth. Few men appear more hopeless than those 
of shallow thought and contentious temper. Self- 
satisfied reasoners, whether they are for us or 
against us, are as ‘ a smoke in the nostrils’; they are 
a hindrance and difficult to influence for good. If 
the number of them should be increased, it will be 
most unfortunate. If we should catch their spirit, it 
will be sad. ,, 

Let all preachers, therefore, beware of the sin of 
shallowness, and let those who are uncertain of their 
own ability go to the leading master minds of mod¬ 
ern religious controversy and study long and ear¬ 
nestly the defense of the faith as shown by them; 
and, when these powerful arguments have been so 
digested and assimilated as to become part of their 
deepest soul-convictions, let them give them to their 
people. The ages of controversy—of the early 
Church, of Luther, of Wesley—have been also the 
ages of revival. It will not be every church or 
preacher, we repeat, that can or ought to follow these 
suggestions. But for some it seems to us to be pre¬ 
eminently the demand of the hour. 

And particularly in solving the question of how to 


288 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


bring men to church and under the power of the 
gospel, there must be the presentation of something 
really thoughtful and profound. Men, in their way, 
are hero-worshipers as much as women are. Nobody 
has much use for sentimentalism or effeminacy. 
The preacher who would draw men must walk hand 
in hand with God on one side and with man on the 
other. Christ mingled among men and did not set 
himself upon an unapproachable plane. Men who 
have kept in touch with the world’s pulse care but 
little for the abstruse and the theological. The finest 
argument is wasted on the layman if it fails to touch 
some vital subject. Most men have little use for 
“hot air”; they insist upon one’s coming to the 
point. Their preacher cannot be an afternoon-tea 
man, or a matinee hero, or a monk. He must be their 
companion and their leader. He must show them 
that religion is as practical as it is theoretical. He 
must present the Christ, not simply in his aspect of 
meekness and gentleness, but as the courageous de¬ 
fender of the truth. His sermons should be short 
and crisp and sensible. 

But the matter of brevity in sermons is in distinct 
danger of being overemphasized. In a prominent 
secular paper we find the following synopsis of the 
late Bishop Potter’s ideas as to the “ twenty-minute ’ ’ 
sermons: “The telephone, the telegraph, and the 
cable have taught us in a most practical way the 
preciousness of time. It is a day of short things— 
short sermons, short editorials, short speeches. 
Quick transit has got into the blood of the age, into 
its thought, into its method of business, into the 
course of life.” But the editor well says that “we 
must have a care that we do not apply the principle 


THE PREACHER AND THE REVIVAL 289 

too far and too indiscriminately. ’* So we think. 
If twenty-minute sermons are so much better than 
those of forty minutes, why not improve still further 
and make them quite perfect by not having them 
exceed ten minutes in length, or even five? Ought 
there not to be some place where we are not in a 
rush and can take a little time? Ought we to carry 
into the house of God the nervous intensity and 
compression of our crowded business hours ? As it 
is, do we consume any too much time in thinking 
about the things of the soul? We can imagine a good 
many worse things than the half-hour or even the 
forty-five-minute sermon—that is, if the minister is 
all the time saying helpful and inspiring things. 

It must be conceded that, generally, people who 
go to church would be willing to excuse their min¬ 
isters from expositions of the purely controversial 
questions in theology on Sunday. They do not par¬ 
ticularly enjoy hearing the minister castigate 
heretics and “rationalists”—especially when the 
* 4 rationalists’ ’ may be men of straw. As far as they 
themselves are concerned, they are neither skeptics 
nor infidels nor heterodox, and do not need to be 
convinced week after week of the fundamental doc¬ 
trines of their faith, though, as we have said, it is 
well for them to receive occasional reassurance. 
They actually believe in God and Christ and the 
Bible, and have never thought of questioning or 
denying them all their lives. We have spoken above 
of the need in some churches and communities of 
definite theological instruction. But most Christians 
are more interested in spiritual and practical themes 
which have a more direct bearing upon the spirit¬ 
uality and morality of their everyday lives. One of 


290 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


our contemporaries states the case well in these 
words: “Any theological truth which reacts toward 
strength for living or purity of conduct will be lis¬ 
tened to. Any sort of talk, theological or otherwise, 
which the preacher lugs in for a show of his intel¬ 
lectual acumen or for proof of his dogmatic ortho¬ 
doxy, will be flouted with disrespect. The difference 
is the difference between preaching on ‘The Love 
of God for Lost Humanity’ and preaching on ‘The 
Ontological Argument for God’s Existence.’ ” 
Evangelists are not infrequently unmindful of 
this essential distinction. Too many of them have 
adopted or invented some newfangled theological 
“plan” or “scheme” of salvation, full of crotchets 
and individual idiosyncrasies. Night after night 
they elaborate the ‘ ‘ system, ’ ’ and then, at the end of 
each exposition, exclaim with earnestness, “Believe 
it! Believe it! ” with the assurance that believing it 
means salvation. John Wesley—who saw so clearly 
that no amount of intellectual assent to dogmas 
could perform a saving work in the soul, and 
who found peace and joy only in a personal trust 
in Christ—would, we imagine, tell such preach¬ 
ers that such a presentation was a delusion and a 
snare. Even though the theological system pro¬ 
pounded was never so reasonable and orthodox, there 
would be no salvation in accepting any theory of 
the atonement or of the Deity of Christ ; and what 
shall we say when doctrines are set forth which are 
so repugnant to intelligent hearers that they are 
almost compelled to admit that it would be quite im¬ 
possible to force themselves to accept them even upon 
the hazard of not getting to heaven? A recent 
writer has defined saving faith as “ a peculiar taste, 


THE PREACHER AND THE REVIVAL 


291 


a trust, an aspiration, a love.” It is not the con¬ 
clusion of a metaphysical argument; it is not a dem¬ 
onstration in theology after the order of proving a 
theorem in Euclid. 

And what shall be said about the introduction into 
the pulpit of discussions pro or con as to the results 
of the investigations of the “higher criticism”? It 
would seem highly injudicious for any preacher to 
attempt it, except so far as any light might be inci¬ 
dentally thrown on the spiritual interpretation of 
the Bible. In the first place, the themes of the pul¬ 
pit should not be scholastic. The business of the 
preacher is to proclaim the Evangel—to announce 
the Good News, to bind up the broken-hearted, to 
proclaim liberty to the captives of Satan, and the 
opening of the prison to them that are bound in sin; 
to proclaim the year of Jehovah’s favor and the 
day of the vengeance of our God on all iniquity. It 
is a very definite and practical program along lines 
of repentance, conversion, consolation, and encour¬ 
agement to righteousness. The role of the book- 
teacher—of the pedagogue—is not for the preacher. 
It is his mission to bring Christ to men. 

It is as Dr. Borden P. Bowne has well said: 
“Christian thought does not center around the 
authorship of the Pentateuch or about any questions 
concerning the unity of Isaiah or the historical char¬ 
acter of Daniel.” “It centers,” he says, “in the 
thought of God the Father Almighty, of Jesus 
Christ his Son and our Lord, of the sanctifying, 
inspiring, life-giving Spirit, and of the kingdom of 
God. This is the gist and root of the whole matter; 
and from this our thought should go out, and to it 
our thought should ever return. The supreme thing 


292 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


is not to affirm or deny higher criticism, not to affirm 
or deny the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, 
not to affirm or deny the historicity of Daniel, but to 
preach the gospel and bring in the kingdom of G-od . 9 9 

And, as Dr. W. N. Clarke has so wisely reminded 
us, it is folly that certain literary questions about the 
Bible should obtain a disproportionate degree of 
prominence, and that points of no intrinsic impor¬ 
tance for the moral and spiritual life should be ele¬ 
vated to the highest rank and insisted upon as vital 
and decisive. Rather, the living questions with 
which clergyman and layman alike must deal are 
such as these: “Whether Christianity is able to ele¬ 
vate the ideals of common life, to check the over¬ 
weening power of money, to limit self-indulgence, to 
bring in a higher standard of honesty, to protect the 
family from disintegrating influences, to diminish 
drunkenness and the social evil, to rescue the lost 
part of the community, to commend religion to all 
souls, to condemn and banish war, to create confi¬ 
dence in righteousness as a living power, to establish 
brotherly kindness as the law of life.” 

Again, the method of the classroom is fundamen¬ 
tally different from the procedure in public worship. 
In the lecture room there can be interruptions— 
questions and answers—which are not allowable 
during preaching. Doubtful impressions cannot be 
cleared up in church by interrogations. Still further, 
the theological lecturer addresses students who have 
been carefully prepared by previous study for such 
special investigation as he conducts them through. 
In the Church there is a mixed assemblage of all ages 
and of all degrees of culture. No preacher could 
possibly adapt his pedagogical instruction on such 


THE PREACHER AND THE REVIVAL 293 

'difficult and delicate critical subjects as the higher 
criticism raises without being thoroughly misunder¬ 
stood by some and very imperfectly understood by 
more. It is very questionable whether the good he 
might do to the few would counterbalance the hurt 
he might work on others in whose minds he might 
simply stir up confusion. And, after all, the ques¬ 
tion will insist on recurring —Cui bono f —what neces¬ 
sary good would be done for weary, hard-working 
men and women who want inspiring and comfort¬ 
ing? What would they get out of it all which would 
be helpful to them in their daily living, in their trials, 
temptations, and sorrows? 

But it is said that many of our thoughtful laymen 
are intensely interested in these themes. If so, there 
is quite an accessible library designed for the use of 
the laity, books like Washington Gladden’s “Who 
Wrote the Bible?” or Lyman Abbott’s “How to 
Study the Bible,” which will be found very helpful 
for private reading. And wherever there is a real 
interest among a number of laymen in the Church, 
classes or clubs for the more comprehensive study 
of the Scriptures could be formed, and in them the 
preacher could easily become an intelligent leader. 
The spiritual revelations of the Scriptures—their 
essential message, their consolation, inspiration, 
manifestation of God, presentation of the Christ, 
unfoldings of duty and privilege to the soul—are 
not involved in, touched by, nor impaired by the 
work of the critics, which lies in a field external to 
the inner truth. 

We have no intention of recommending a policy 
of suppression, of foolishly trying to keep our lay¬ 
men in ignorance of modern conclusions. We have 


294 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


no fear of these conclusions of the critics for our¬ 
selves, if they are sufficiently authenticated by 
demonstration. Neither do we fear the effect of 
any such truths on the religion of anyone who has 
any real religion, a religion of vital experience, based 
on truth experimentally and spiritually appre¬ 
hended, and not on the formal acceptance of any 
species of literalism. So far from seeking to keep 
our laymen away from knowing what their pastors 
are reading about, wherever there is any real inter¬ 
est, as there should be with many, in these most 
important matters, we would recommend cordially 
to their study some of the numerous popular 
treatises on the Bible intended for their illumination, 
and would favor classes for their instruction, led 
either by the pastor or some other,capable and judi¬ 
cious person. 

But we contend that there are conclusive reasons 
for holding that the pulpit itself, on the Sabbath day, 
is not the place for such expositions. In this view 
we find ourselves upheld by the late Dr. John Wat¬ 
son (Ian Maclaren), of Liverpool. He writes: 

“The critical movement has not only affected 
students in their studies, but also preachers in their 
pulpits, and while I have ever pleaded for full lib¬ 
erty in criticism, and have used that liberty myself, 
I am free to acknowledge that I would have done 
more good if I had been less critical and more evan¬ 
gelical. And by evangelical I mean more hearten¬ 
ing and more comforting. 

“There are widows anxious about their families, 
young men fighting a life or death battle with fiery 
temptations, lonely women with empty hearts, mer¬ 
chants harassed by business affairs, old folk near- 


THE PREACHER AND THE REVIVAL 


295 


ing the banks of the Jordan, feeble folk with the 
message of death in their bodies. Perhaps they 
ought to be blamed for their indifference, but they 
really do not care one straw who wrote the Penta¬ 
teuch, or what is the meaning of the Athanasian 
Creed; but they are hungering and thirsting for a 
word of good cheer to strengthen their arms and to 
lift up their heads. It is cruel if they do not get it. 

“Allow me to whisper in some young minister’s 
ear that if he is going to select two or three profes¬ 
sional men and prepare learned sermons for them, 
he is making a double mistake. He is neglecting the 
common people who heard his Master gladly and 
he is wearying the other people nigh unto death; 
they have had enough of the lecture room and its 
theories. They have come to church for light on 
daily duty and inspiration to do it bravely. And 
when I have in my day, like us all, attempted to 
reconcile science and religion, one of the greatest 
men in science who used also to be a hearer in my 
church never seemed to be interested; but when I 
dealt with the deep affairs of the soul he would come 
round in the afternoon to talk it out.” 


CHAPTER XI 

The Laymen and the Revival 

There is no phrase more overworked in the church 
vernacular than this—“We want a preacher who 
can draw.” It may be pertinently asked by any 
preacher with reference to any charge, “Is it a 
people that will draw?” For the obligation is as 
much upon one as the other. Where everything has 
been concentrated in the minister, when he dies or 
departs the work falls to pieces. Where there has 
been efficient organization, so that everyone in the 
church has been set to work to win men to Christ, 
the church activities go right on even when for a 
time there is no leader. 

The function of the church people is not to be 
“lookers on in Venice”; not to stand outside and 
coolly remark upon and criticize the way the pastor 
does things. It is their business to labor together 
with him for the conversion and building up of men in 
the gospel. And yet there are many churches where 
there have been few if any conversions for years, and 
it becomes a serious question what will become of 
the organization when the old people all die off. The 
blame for this condition cannot all be laid on the 
ministry. Given a blood-earnest membership, intent 
on leading men to Christ, and there will be revivals 
despite indifferent pastorates. And any conscien¬ 
tious pastor can succeed with the hearty cooperation 
of his people who “draw” along with him. 

When will the people of God arrive at the con- 

296 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 


297 


elusion that it is not enough for them to come to 
service twice a Sunday, and absorb the gospel, 
sponge-like, and never give out any of it? When 
will they take the hint from those inconspicuous dis¬ 
ciples who, after the early persecutions, scattered 
all over the Roman empire, but wherever they went 
kindled the fires of Christianity by their unquench¬ 
able testimonies, each one of them feeling himself 
divinely commissioned to be a propagandist of the 
faith; and, in fact, doing it anyhow, naturally and 
spontaneously, simply because he could not keep 
still about it? It was impossible for him to hold his 
tongue concerning such a matter. And he not only 
talked about it, but, for its sake, cheerfully met the 
lions, the gladiators, the burning stakes. It is little 
wonder that Christ was so soon made known all 
over the civilized world and that converts were 
made to his name by the thousands. The flaming 
zeal spread like a prairie fire, licking up all in its 
way. 

Instead of saying that nothing either great or 
small remains for them to do besides sitting still 
and making caustic remarks on the failures of the 
poor harassed minister, who is only a mortal like 
themselves, it is for his people, glowing with the love 
of Christ and longing to make it known, to fall to 
and assist in the work of inviting men and bringing 
them under the influence of the gospel. We have 
heard many people pray fervently for the raising 
up of those who should “come up to the help of the 
Lord against the mighty , 9 7 when all the while it was 
themselves who obviously needed raising up. They 
would sing emotionally, “But drops of grief can 
ne’er repay the debt of love I owe,” and then seem- 


298 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


ingly think that the confession of bankruptcy was 
enough of a settlement. 

We debate endlessly on the problem of “how to 
save the masses.” Every other plan is suggested 
but the obvious one of going to them as individuals, 
one by one, and trying to lovingly persuade them to 
accept Christ. No reliance upon new methods, no 
novel inventions on the part of any evangelists will 
take the place of this. Simple-hearted and ignorant 
followers of Wesley, with little else to help them but 
hearts surcharged with the love of Jesus, went out 
to save England and did it. The prayer of every 
church member should be that he might be assisted 
to proclaim through all the earth abroad the honors 
of his Master’s name. 

Not only by reading the Scriptures, prayer, par¬ 
taking of the communion, pubic worship, will men 
learn to love Christ. In a blessed reflex influence all 
service vivifies love, as all love inspires service. The 
ardor of young converts would not so soon cool if 
they would keep actively at work trying to save 
their friends and companions, and backsliders would 
not so quickly have forgotten how they had been 
taken from the pit, how the shepherd had sought and 
found his sheep, how the Father had welcomed back 
the prodigal, if they themselves had remembered, 
like David, to teach transgressors their ways, so that 
sinners should be converted to God. 

How shall Christians acquit themselves of inordi¬ 
nate selfishness and ingratitude if they try to hoard 
the love of Christ or fail to publish it? In the old 
dispensation authority was the ruling note; in the 
new, gratitude. “Go home to thy friends and tell 
them how great things the Lord hath done for thee 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 


299 


and hath had compassion on thee/’ They who sym¬ 
pathize in reality, and not merely sentimentally, with 
the mission of Christ, which involved his passion and 
cross, will so love him that they will want to cooperate 
with him in seeking to see that for which his soul 
travails, and so he satisfied. They can test the depth 
and sincerity of their religions life by the measure 
of their desire for the conversion of others. The 
heart-throbs must not die out. The love must be 
kept continually fresh. The gospel must be ever¬ 
more “good news,” not old and stale and inert, 
not a mere remembrance of a burned-out emotion. 
There must be constantly a willing, devoted, con¬ 
certed, cooperative evangelism. 

In all churches where special meetings are con¬ 
ducted many are the earnest prayers ascending for 
the manifestation of God’s power and grace in sav¬ 
ing men. No one can overestimate the importance or 
the benefit of such petitions. “More things are 
wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. ’ ’ But 
if prayer is to prove its sincerity, its downright 
honesty, its faith must be joined to works. What 
shall we say of those who nightly pray with such 
fervor for a revival and then never, by a single 
spoken word, endeavor to influence anyone in favor 
of the Christian life? It must be honestly confessed 
that there is a strong flavor of religious profession¬ 
alism and perfunctoriness in such an attitude. 

In our experience we have found it the hardest 
kind of work to get many people to pledge definitely 
to even invite people to come to the special or regu¬ 
lar services of the Church, or to call for and accom¬ 
pany them to the place of prayer. If, in the enthu¬ 
siasm of a fervent meeting, the promise were made, 


300 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


it seemed to slip the memory very shortly afterward. 
And it was the rarest thing to see any stranger, 
unless some visitor of the family, in the member’s 
regular pew on Sunday. Once we were seriously 
informed that nearly everyone in that city went to 
church somewhere and that there were no unat¬ 
tached people to invite! 

It is not necessary that church members should be 
skilled in religious argument, in the ability of a law¬ 
yer to state and defend his case, in order to be effi¬ 
cient in serving Christ and their fellow men in these 
highest ways. A single sentence, spoken with feel¬ 
ing and manifest concern and love, is worth volumes 
of theological discussion. Men do not care for con¬ 
troversy as much as they do for the manifestation of 
a warm, unaffected heart-love, and when they see 
that they respond. 

Much has been written about the New Evangelism. 
One must not be prepared by the term for anything 
startlingly novel. In some churches, however, the 
well-known method of having the laity go out as 
evangelists—men and women of the churches seek¬ 
ing their friends and acquaintances individually, 
and endeavoring to persuade them to accept the 
Christian life—is just now bearing much fruit. Per¬ 
haps this old-time method has fallen so long into 
disuse that, in its present revised form, it may well 
be called “new.” There is growing a pronounced 
and gracious movement from working this plan 
among the Presbyterian churches which we would 
do well to study seriously. 

This form of activity makes no great or sensa¬ 
tional stir, so as to attract much public notice. It 
finds its sphere, not in big opera houses, music halls, 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 


SOI 


armories, or rinks, but in the local churches. The 
pastors of these churches, perhaps assisted by neigh¬ 
boring pastors, are the evangelists. Many profes¬ 
sional evangelists have conspicuous excellencies, but 
familiar objections are urged against some repre¬ 
sentatives, the chief being that their work is not 
permanent, and that, in a few months after an ex¬ 
tensive revival, few or none of the converts remain. 
The doctrine is sometimes erratic, the preaching and 
methods frequently stagey; pastors find it next to 
impossible to transfer such attachment as existed in 
the convert for the evangelist to themselves and the 
Church; and too frequently the impression made 
upon the so-called convert’s mind seems very slight, 
casual, and easily obliterated. So that, if there can 
be a revival in the church itself, under the preaching 
of the appointed minister, there is much gain. And 
if the preaching can be vital, and not formal nor an¬ 
tiquated nor mechanical; keeping loyally to the best 
aspects of truth seen in the light of the latest think¬ 
ing of men of God; translating doctrine into terms 
of conduct and character; linking ethics with reli¬ 
gious feeling; appealing to reason, conscience, and 
the higher emotional and spiritual instincts rather 
than to low fears and vulgar superstitions; present¬ 
ing Christ as he is interpreted by the most reverent 
and rational minds of to-day—if the preaching can 
be thus practical, spiritual, virile, true to life as well 
as the gospel, intense, throbbing with love, much may 
be expected as result. 

We want to commend a tiny volume by William 
DeWitt Hyde, president of Bowdoin College, and 
entitled 4 ‘ The New Ethics. ’ 9 In the chapter on ‘ ‘ So¬ 
cial Sympathy and Responsibility” we met a para- 


302 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


graph that riveted our attention and suggested wide 
deductions. President Hyde says: “Every person 
of any considerable strength of character can recall 
many an instance in which by half an hour’s conver¬ 
sation, followed up by occasional suggestions after¬ 
ward, he has changed the whole subsequent career of 
another person. To one who has discovered the 
secret of this power, a week permitted to pass by, 
without thus changing the life-currents of half a 
dozen of his fellows, would seem a wicked, wanton 
waste of life’s chief privilege and joy. I could 
name a quiet, modest man who, at a low estimate, 
has changed directly and radically for the better a 
thousand human lives, and indirectly, to an appre¬ 
ciable degree, certainly not less than a hundred thou¬ 
sand. He is no professional preacher or evangelist, 
and the greater part of this vast work has been done 
in quiet conversation, mainly in his own home and by 
correspondence. ’ ’ 

Anyone can make his own application of this 
remarkable instance. It has, of course, its bearings 
immediate and direct on the subject now uppermost 
in the thought of the Church—persuading men by 
personal interest and conversation of their need of 
religion, of the claims of Christ upon them, and of 
the necessity that their lives should have in them the 
Spirit of Christ; in other words, the pressing pro¬ 
gram of personal and unofficial evangelism is here 
plainly indicated. It is the hope of being an inspira¬ 
tion to others in this loftiest personal service that 
must furnish incentive to every minister in his 
preaching and pastoral work, and the joy of which 
service can be shared by any layman, any humblest 
follower of Christ, who will seriously undertake it. 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 303 

Frequently the very pertinent question is raised 
whether the churches are really ready for a revival 
or not. It is a searching question to put in regard 
to any parish where frigid formality is characteristic 
of services and where caste distinctions have crept 
in among the membership. Would such church mem¬ 
bers recognize a revival when they saw it? Would 
they know what to do with it should it by any acci¬ 
dent break out among them? Would they be able in 
any right way to direct seekers after Christ and his 
religion into the right paths of repentance and con¬ 
secration? Or, should any converts, by any sup¬ 
position, show themselves, could they survive long 
where the atmosphere was not one of warmth or of 
cheer ? Could such a church organize and direct the 
activity of these converts, and put them to work in 
such spiritual, moral, and philanthropic activities as 
would draw out their best religious energies ? 

The nominal Christian, the man who has really 
backslidden, but who has hardly confessed it to him¬ 
self, is a man to be condoled with when he finds a 
revival making its appearance. He is of all men 
most uncomfortable and hardly knows how to com¬ 
port himself. If there be such in any church to-day, 
immediate necessity lies upon them of doing the first 
works over again, and bringing themselves into sym¬ 
pathetic relation with Christ and evangelistic effort, 
so that they may cooperate warm-heartedly in the 
efforts to save others. 

There must be a great returning to the searching 
of the Word of God, in order that He may speak to 
each soul out of his own revelation. If, in private 
life and in the family circle, the Bible has been neg¬ 
lected, there must be a conscientious return to its 


304 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


reading. Men must read it prayerfully and rever¬ 
ently to find for themselves words for their own 
souls and directions for evangelizing their brethren. 
It is doubtless true that there has been an awakening 
of interest in the Bible lately manifested, greater 
than any similar movement shown since the Protes¬ 
tant Reformation of the sixteenth century. The con¬ 
ventions of the Religious Education Association 
show a wonderful and gratifying trend in this direc¬ 
tion. The earnest and continued study of the Bible 
is one of the absolutely necessary preliminaries to 
any coming revival. And when it comes, if any 
formal Christianity, wherever it exists, shall be 
broken down by the incoming of the flaming breath 
of God, we shall see church officers conversing with 
their business acquaintances, and parents talking 
lovingly to their children about the Saviour. Friend 
will speak with friend, and more will be accomplished 
in such fashion than any of us can now anticipate— 
more than by any methods, however ingenious, any 
church leaders may devise. 

For too many people specifically religious duty 
would seem to he summed up in going to church on 
Sunday, attending the weekly prayer meeting and 
paying “ quarterage/’ They keep the minister in 
the pulpit, listen to him, praise or criticize him, as 
the case may he. Whatever is to he done in the com¬ 
munity in a religious way, he is to do it. That is what 
he is paid for, and that, accordingly, is what is ex¬ 
pected of him. It does not seem to occur to the aver¬ 
age lay member that Christ imposes any definite 
evangelistic obligation upon him. Not until Chris¬ 
tians get away from such an idea will there be any 
general revival. Not until each individual is willing 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 


305 


to go out and interest himself in his friend and 
neighbor, inviting him to the Saviour; not until 
church members feel personally both the necessity 
and the privilege of winning souls will there be any 
great movement. 4 4 The Church/ ' as an abstract 
personality, cannot draw men to the cross. There 
must be tireless, tactful, earnest effort on the part 
of individuals. Room or time must be made for this 
endeavor, amusements must be abridged, appoint¬ 
ments must be declined, and the right of way must 
be given to the supreme need of the hour—the invi¬ 
tation to be saved. To expect the minister to do 
all of this is palpably unreasonable. As Wesley 
said, church members themselves must be 4 4 all at 
it, and always at it. ' 9 

The resolution, which we once saw, requesting the 
return for another year of work of a prominent pas¬ 
tor, contains a significant expression. After ask¬ 
ing the return, the paper continues: 

4 4 Realizing that the need of our church and this 
community is a great revival of religion, and recog¬ 
nizing the fact that the pastor alone cannot bring 
about this desired result, we pledge ourselves, with 
God's help, to give our earnest, prayerful endeavor 
in cooperating with our pastor in this sacred work. 
And we humbly pray that a sincere desire for a 
revival and gracious outpouring of God's blessing 
upon our church may possess the heart and soul of 
every member of our congregation .' 9 

Such an expression as the above needs no com¬ 
ment. It is enough to cause a pastor to enter upon 
the new year with the swing of victory. It is a recog¬ 
nition of the fact that an invitation to return means 
comradeship in the continued battle. We commend 


306 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


both spirit and form, and may snch requests in¬ 
crease and mightily multiply. 

What a picture of a certain type of church mem¬ 
bers is that etched for us so sharply by that shrewd 
observer, Whittier, in his prelude to 4 ‘ Among the 
Hills”! Many wi]l recall the realistic description: 

Churchgoers, fearful of the unseen Powers, 

But grumbling over pulpit tax and pew rent. 

Saving, as shrewd economists, their souls 
And winter pork with the least possible outlay 
Of salt and sanctity: in daily life 
Showing as little actual comprehension 
Of Christian charity and love and duty, 

As if the Sermon on the Mount had been 
Out-dated like a last year’s almanac. 

The pastor may be consumed with an honest zeal, 
he may sincerely long for the awakening of men to 
their religious needs and duties, but if he is sur¬ 
rounded by an indifferent, apathetic membership, a 
revival is next to impossible. Into such a frigid 
atmosphere there is little probability that any souls 
will be born anew. The chances are, unless he has 
a personality extraordinarily strong, that the pastor 
himself will be benumbed by the zero temperature, 
and made one with his half-frozen flock. There 
ought to be little necessity for spending several 
weeks in getting the church “in condition.” The 
great majority of the professing Christians ought 
not to be such spiritual invalids that they have to be 
put into hospital for a month each year, before, as 
good soldiers, they are ready for the campaign. 
They ought to be as eager, as desirous, as full of 
yearning for getting men converted as the pastor 
himself. Such a church will stimulate even a half¬ 
hearted minister and conquer success. 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 307 

But how general is this feeling among the people ? 
Candor compels us to admit that it is conspicuous 
by its absence. There is a meaning in the phrase 
“passion for souls,” but it is more talked about than 
in evidence. The demand of the hour is for a conse¬ 
crated laity, every one filled with evangelistic ardor, 
every one seeking to influence others Christward. 
If the officers and influential members in every 
church were as actively interested in seeking to bring 
their neighbors under the power of the gospel as 
they rightly are in engineering the finances and pro¬ 
viding for the churches material equipment, we 
should find our communities vastly more affected. 
But all the members, not the officiary only, should be 
awake and at work. What could not be accomplished 
if the latent but unexpressed and unemployed evan¬ 
gelizing power of the laity might be realized to the 
Church? Is it an impossibility? Is this easy-going, 
phlegmatic, dormant condition—sluggish as that of 
the hibernating bear—something natural and un¬ 
avoidable? Are we breathing constantly, in the 
atmosphere of our times, some noxious gas that is 
overcoming us with stupor and etherizing us into a 
perilous bliss of unconsciousness as to the unspirit¬ 
ualized condition of the world ? 

The Congregationalist at one time published a 
remarkable symposium upon the subject of “Lay¬ 
men and a Revival.” It asked laymen themselves 
to reply to the questions whether the average lay¬ 
man in late years has shifted on the minister the 
main responsibility for the spiritual life of the 
Church and the community, and in what definite ways 
can laymen to-day cooperate with ministers to extend 
a genuine religious spirit in a community. The edi- 


308 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


tor printed some fifteen extended replies from as 
many laymen, prominent in the Congregational 
Church, and representing different sections of the 
country. We were greatly interested in what they 
said, for it is our conviction that in the direction of 
this inquiry will be found the main cause for the lack 
of spirituality in our churches. 

There was a general agreement that too much 
responsibility was unloaded upon the minister for 
the conversion of others; and yet several thought 
that the practice was not of recent growth, but, 
rather, that there had been a considerable improve¬ 
ment on general lines over conditions one hundred 
years ago. The strenuous life of the average busi¬ 
ness man may account for his seeming neglect in 
active religious work for others; but, despite the 
strain of our times, there seems to be abundant lei¬ 
sure for all sorts of clubs and literary and social 
organizations. If spiritual life is at a low ebb, the 
blame may be laid at the door of the excessive mate¬ 
rialism of our day, the everlasting rush for money. 
There may have been no conscious shifting upon the 
minister of the burden for souls, but, nevertheless, 
practically, the layman’s duty in the matter is neg¬ 
lected or ignored. It needs but little reflection to 
understand that the spiritual life of the community 
cannot be separated from the spiritual life of the 
Church. If the Church will develop strongly its 
religious life, it will assuredly quicken souls in con¬ 
tact with it and draw them to itself and to Christ. 

Much of the responsibility may lie with the min¬ 
ister himself. Many causes may have cooperated to 
deaden his zeal for evangelization—one of the chief- 
est being, perhaps, the apathy of his people which 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 


309 


becomes contagious. A people constantly demand¬ 
ing and expecting diversion in the pulpit, and not 
an awakening theme speaking to heart and con¬ 
science, will soon influence the average minister to 
adopt unconsciously its own ideals. The minister 
must brace himself by prayer and consecration 
against this tendency. He must be the leader and 
not the led. He must go up into the mount and 
thence bring his inspiring message—touch the emo¬ 
tions of men, make them feel, give them food for 
their spiritual natures, lift their souls to higher 
planes, arouse them to a vital interest in the spirit¬ 
ual welfare of the surrounding community. 

If the minister tries to do all the work himself, 
with the assistance, perhaps, of an associate or a 
deaconess, he is distinctly to blame. As some of 
these Congregational laymen look at it, he is to util¬ 
ize the membership of his church just as the super¬ 
intendent of a great factory utilizes his force of 
workmen. He is to set them all at work, instead of, 
as now, having ninety per cent idle and ineffective. 
The churches are burdened with dead masses, and 
business methods of getting everybody actively 
employed must be used. There must be a reconse¬ 
cration of the laymen as well as of the ministry. 
The extension of a genuine religious spirit in the 
community can come only through lives made holy 
by the Spirit of God. Laymen must, in their private 
and business lives, maintain a high grade of personal 
integrity and conscientiousness—an everyday reli¬ 
gion without reproach. They must love the Church, 
have a more vivid consciousness of its dignity, its 
absolute necessity in the world, and of its great 
opportunity. More than any program of methods— 


310 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


of things to do and the way to do them—they need 
a consuming love for Christ and a burning passion 
for the spiritual welfare of their fellow men. Given 
these, and methods of work will not be hard to dis¬ 
cover. Where there is indeed a will there is ever a 
way. 

And there are very many ways that these clear¬ 
sighted laymen see for themselves to set to work in 
Christ’s cause, ways which lie close at hand in the 
existing activities of the Church, and which are 
already enlisting much lay effort: the cultivation of a 
definite spiritual life in the home, through secret and 
family prayer and Bible study; the Christ-life copied 
in behavior toward the wife and the children, and 
lived on the street, in the office, in the club and draw¬ 
ing room; regular attendance at Sunday and mid¬ 
week services, with preparation by prayer; study 
of the prayer meeting topics and taking some part 
during the hour; inviting others to any and all of 
the church services, greeting strangers cordially, 
and speaking an appreciative word to the pastor; 
Bible class work in church and Young Men’s Chris¬ 
tian Association; common-sense teaching in the Sun¬ 
day school; helping in twenty-minute meetings, at 
noon or midnight, for shopmen. All of this general 
activity, combined with an ardor for missions at 
home and abroad, will help greatly to intensify the 
spiritual atmosphere of any church. 

But, more specifically, if countless more laymen 
will carry on neighborhood meetings for Bible study 
and prayer; give personal invitations to accept 
Christ as Saviour and unite with the Church, so that 
the mechanic shall work with mechanic, merchant 
with merchant, clerk with clerk, individual with indi- 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 311 

vidual; keep a sympathetic outlook in the Sunday 
school and young people’s meetings for any ripe 
for the reaping, the results will he incalculable. 
We want personal work for persons. Too much of 
our work is an effort to organize the people and save 
a crowd. May there come to the laity in all our 
churches an open-mindedness to the guidance of the 
Spirit, and the fullest cooperation with the Spirit- 
filled church organization! 

We fear that too often, among the rank and file of 
our church membership, the work done and the bur¬ 
dens and responsibilities carried by the officiary of 
the Church are distinctly underestimated and not ap¬ 
preciated at their true value. Indeed, these faithful 
brethren who cheerfully give so much of their time 
and thought, surrendering so many evenings when 
they might be enjoying the comforts of their homes, 
often come in for no little criticism on the part of 
their fellow members. They get no remuneration 
for their labors, but they frequently get plenty of 
fault-finding, particularly from those who, doing 
nothing else in behalf of the Church, appear to have 
a considerable amount of time for such contribu¬ 
tions. 

Think, too, of the multitude of things that must 
engage their thoughts and concern in the conduct 
of the Church. Possibly there is a new church edifice 
to erect. Not only is there the minister to look after 
regularly, but the choir, the sexton, and sometimes 
other care-takers. There are the general necessities 
of the Sunday school. There are the insurance to be 
met, the interest on the debt, perhaps, the considera¬ 
tion of the sinking fund, the amount necessary for 
repairs, the administration of the poor fund, the 


312 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


plans for raising the benevolences, and a score of 
other matters which come up monthly. 

They are the ‘ ‘ dependables. ’’ But is it much won¬ 
der that these brethren, almost of necessity, come 
to think of the Church from its business side, and to 
convert religion into terms of dollars and cents? 
They speak of themselves as “doorkeepers in the 
house of the Lord,” and that too often they are, and 
little else, unfortunately; for the material side of the 
church work engrosses them almost entirely, and to 
the exclusion of its spiritual activities. Finance 
become almost synonymous with piety. And what 
happens to them happens quite frequently with 
many of the women, who spend great portions of 
their time in planning to raise money by fairs and 
festivals and entertainments, so that the definitely 
religious element is somewhat crowded out of their 
thoughts and experience. 

Doubtless these efficient and practical-minded men 
and women are of a somewhat different mold and 
temperament from another class in the Church who 
are prominent for their piety, and who sometimes 
do scant justice in their thoughts to officials who 
may not be of the Saint John type, but rather mod¬ 
eled after Saint James. Nevertheless, these latter 
mean to be true and earnest Christians, serving the 
Lord and his cause devotedly in their own field, and 
with their native inclinations and capacities, and 
they should not be looked upon with doubt as to 
their real Christian life. In fact, we have not meant 
to intimate that many of these hard-working men 
and women do not have a vital piety besides a talent 
for administration and aggressiveness. Many are 
as eminent in one department as the other. But large 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 


313 


numbers of our active, brusque, go-ahead business 
men, who like to see things kept a-moving in the 
churches, can scarcely be described as mystics. They 
often speak of themselves smilingly as “no great 
saints, ” but as wanting to see the Church meet its 
bills and be conducted on business principles. All 
honor to these brethren! We write not to hold them 
up for reproof, but only to exhort them to enter into 
larger privileges, which are theirs in Christ Jesus. 
It is right and supremely creditable that they should 
give themselves so self-sacrificingly to the material 
needs of the Church. Without them and their labors 
things could not go on in Zion, and the Church in 
all its activities, spiritual as well as philanthropic, 
would languish. How often do they go down into 
their pockets to make up little deficiencies that the 
rest of the membership never know anything 
about! 

If, now, they would add to these admitted virtues 
a completer zeal for consecration along definitely 
religious lines and vital experiences in heart piety, 
what a gain it would be all around! There would be 
no cleavage in the Church in relation to spirituality, 
but a delightful oneness in the appropriation of gos¬ 
pel grace. The “saints’’ would rejoice to see those 
who they thought had only very moderate allow¬ 
ances of religion one with them in spirit, and would 
thereafter cooperate with them more cheerfully. 
And what a satisfaction and a glory would come into 
the heart of many an industrious, overladen trustee 
or steward, almost distracted sometimes with the 
financial problems centering in the house of the 
Lord, if he would only seek prayerfully an increase 
in spiritual power and inward, satisfying knowledge 


314 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


of the Saviour! An untold joy would flood through 
him, and it would beget a new enthusiasm in his 
work for Christ, spiritual now as well as financial. 

Generally the official members are the picked men 
of the Church, and as such of the largest influence. 
When they add a warm-hearted, devotional spirit to 
all their business endowments, what a help to the 
inner life of the Church comes from them! The 
young people look up to them, and their influence, 
both exerted and unconscious, is beyond easy esti¬ 
mate. They stand before the outside public as the 
representatives of the Church and of Christianity, 
and as such are noted and appraised. 

They can inspire all the services if powerful and 
devout personalities. But when they seem cold and 
unresponsive to a true piety, their influence is often 
enough to dampen the ardor of a whole congrega¬ 
tion of people. A frigid and dead formalism takes 
the place of a living faith. Instead of the revival 
there is a paralyzing apathy. Would that every¬ 
where the officiary of the Church might realize their 
tremendous duties and responsibilities, both to them¬ 
selves individually and to the churches in which they 
are in the matter of a profounder spirituality! The 
key to the revival situation is very frequently obvi¬ 
ously held in their hands. 

We think, therefore, that there will be a general 
agreement among all pastors that, before we can 
expect any general revival among the unconverted 
masses of the country, a large work of preparation 
must be done with the body of professing Christians 
themselves. We do not mean that these are all in 
need of reconversion or even of sanctification. But 
there is lacking that cordial and sympathetic atmos- 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 315 

phere which constitutes the right environment and 
condition for the conversion of sinners in any num¬ 
bers. We do not mean that church members are 
“opposed to revivals,” nor that they do not in a 
way desire to see men turning to God. But the feel¬ 
ing is altogether too languid a one; it has in it little 
yearning or passion. It is only a proper bit of senti¬ 
ment, and it does not arouse to prayer, effort, action. 
It is genially apathetic. 

And this amiable lethargy as to the conversion of 
sinners is to be found not only in the pews, but in 
the pulpit also. Ministers, of course, if you ask 
them, will admit that they want to see men saved. 
But they do not seem to want it hard enough. They 
begin revivals, but with a lurking skepticism under¬ 
neath as to any results. There are absent the confi¬ 
dent mood of expectancy and the energetic determi¬ 
nation with God’s help to succeed. 

It is not pleasant but distinctly painful for us to 
have to make this diagnosis and proclaim the exist¬ 
ence of such a state of affairs. But we might as 
well face the facts. When we understand the situa¬ 
tion we may be in a condition then to reform it. 
We admit that there is a reflex action that will assert 
itself, and that when sinners begin to repent and are 
gloriously saved the sight of such a work of grace 
will do as much as anything to awaken the interest 
of Christians which is now so sickly. We do not 
advocate postponing all appeals to the unconverted 
until we have actively enlisted every church mem¬ 
ber in an evangelistic campaign. Nevertheless, we 
do not believe that there will be any wide, profound 
manifestation of the Spirit’s power until, in the 
Christian community itself, there shall rise a strong 


316 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


tide of positive, passionate yearning and prayerful¬ 
ness for it. 

This means something else than praying the ac¬ 
cepted prayers for a revival in prayer meeting and 
at the exhortation of the pastor. All unconsciously 
these may be merely perfunctory, a pious drill. The 
real test of the existence of a yearning for the salva¬ 
tion of men will be the consciousness during the week 
of such a consuming feeling, the irrepressible 
prayers which will well up in private and in family 
devotions for them, the practical efforts to bring 
them to the cross—efforts which need no pastoral 
stimulation, but which cannot be kept back. When 
such conditions exist in the Church a revival may be 
almost infallibly predicted. 

There is much mechanical beseeching of the Lord 
to “make bare his mighty arm,” to manifest his 
power and grace in the conversion of men, and not 
enough candid heart-searching to know if really, 
in our deepest selves, we keenly feel the absolute 
necessity of the salvation of others. We are in 
grave danger of cant and unctuous pietism. If we 
actually desired the saving of men as much as our 
prayers would seem to imply, we would show our 
zeal in other ways. We may take it for granted that 
the Lord is willing at any time to display his con¬ 
verting power. He is never reluctant; he does not 
have to be greatly importuned to do a thing that he 
is constantly longing to do. Times and seasons do 
not count with him in such a matter as this. But 
he has made us his coadjutors in this solemn busi¬ 
ness, and if we fail, if we drop into artificial moods 
and lack blood-earnestness, then his grace, wanting 
the proper channel for its flowing, cannot reach the 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 317 

hearts of men. We are the sluice-ways for his 
Spirit, and the dams must be lifted. 

When Christians themselves act as if there was 
no need of any great or immediate and pressing con¬ 
cern for the conversion of men, it is not to be won¬ 
dered at that unsaved men should regard themselves 
in the same light. Both they and their church 
friends seem to take it for granted that there is no 
need for any exceeding alarm. The subject of per¬ 
sonal religion is rarely broached between Christian 
and non-Christian friends. Men in the world begin 
to think that the religious life is nothing much more 
than a decent going to church on Sunday and listen¬ 
ing to a sermon and some choir music. And if they 
do not happen to like the preaching, and think they 
can hear better singing elsewhere, they conclude 
that the whole matter can be dropped out without 
any real or apparent loss. The old dogmas have 
lost all their force for them and they have no un¬ 
pleasant anticipations of the future. They bank 
heavily on the infinite amiability of God and give 
retribution for sin little or no thought. They do not 
even realize that the spiritual life is one that must 
be definitely cultivated. “To do good and love men 
is my religion,” they say—a noble ideal, but im¬ 
possible of accomplishment outside of Christ. The 
prevalent conceptions of religion as a piece of ethics 
or a philanthropy only crowd out the underlying 
and necessary aspects of it as a profound regenera¬ 
tion of the spirit and reformation of life. 

We are convinced that our current Christianity is 
largely responsible for these views which have 
proved such an opiate both within and without the 
Church. It is for the clergy and people alike and 


318 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


together to realize what we have come to, to shake 
off somnolence and endeavor to bring back, not only 
in individuals but in the mass of Christians, that 
sonl-thirst for the salvation of men which was in 
Bnnyan, Baxter, and Wesley. Moody had it, and 
Campbell Morgan has it now. Would God we might 
all have it! 

The duty of the hour, as it seems to us, is for all 
of our ministers to begin to preach earnestly, 
pointedly, lovingly to their people and show the sin 
of this comparative apathy and the necessity of 
more actual solicitude and warm-hearted activity 
in behalf of those about them still unrepentant and 
unsaved. An occasional sermon will not suffice. 
There must be a return to the theme again and again. 

And on the part of all there must be an abandon¬ 
ment of merely nominal or respectably decent, half¬ 
way Christianity. There must be a determined 
effort to live out religion in all of its strength, 
reality, purity, and power. Christians must have 
done with all make-believes and manifest to the 
world their absolute sincerity and faith. Then may 
they expect that the world will take them at their 
word and come with them to seek a God of love and 
pardon, a Christ of mercy and saving efficiency. 
Resolutions of General Conferences, and General 
Assemblies, and General Conventions, commissions, 
preachers, all combined, will fail in revival effort un¬ 
less a united and consecrated laity shall bring in 
addition to them the spirit of earnest conviction, 
prayer, and labor. 

In hundreds of parishes all over our country each 
winter, ministers engage in evangelistic meetings in 
which their hearts and hopes are greatly wrapped 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 


319 


up. Shall they have the enthusiastic support and 
earnest efforts and prayers of* practically, their 
whole membership to aid them? That is the query 
which gives them most concern. The question of 
success or failure usually hinges right there. They 
can always count on a certain faithful few of the 
more devout to be present and to stay with them 
until the end; and for this they are grateful. But 
why should they not have the entire church body 
with them, hand to hand and heart to heart? 

We are moved, therefore, to say some things about 
those who do not ordinarily count themselves with 
the very religious element of the churches, hut who 
are certainly Christians when measured by the moral 
code of the New Testament. They feel that their 
religion is of the ethical type and does not easily 
adjust itself to the emotional or intenser forms. 
Nevertheless, they ought to identify themselves with 
the revival from the start. They need not be radi¬ 
cally made over in their ways of religious expres¬ 
sion. They need not imitate others whose language 
takes on a warmth which is not natural to them¬ 
selves. But they, as much as any, need the help that 
the revival would bring. In most cases they are very 
practical business men, rubbing up against the world 
every day of every week, and with nearly all senti¬ 
ment rather rudely knocked out of them. The world is 
with them soon and late, and they cannot help being 
affected by its ideals more or less. They are sur¬ 
rounded daily with all the temptations which beset 
men in the open and which swarm about the competi¬ 
tive business methods of our times. They cannot 
afford to leave piety to the piously inclined. To 
preserve their religion, to keep alive their love for 


320 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


Christ, to revitalize the very morality which is the 
distinctive mark of their faith, they need to “get 
warmed up,” to use an excellent old phrase. They 
may not have consciously backslidden, but many of 
them must confess that some more real fervor, some 
accession of a deeper love for their Saviour, would 
not be out of place for them, but that they need it 
rather sadly. They do not neglect the necessity for 
physical recuperation when the annual vacation 
time comes around. The soul-life must have its 
times of refreshment. This is recognized in the 
ritualistic churches during the Lenten season. The 
spiritual nature cannot endure, for every week in 
the year, the pressure of materialistic ideals—the 
thoughts of business and monetary success alone— 
without loss. It must have its rights and the 
special meetings will afford it untold good. 

There ought never to be in any church such a wide 
separation as often exists between the “praying 
members 99 and the 6 ‘ paying members. ’ 9 The church 
should be a unit, however diversified the personali¬ 
ties constituting it, and should work together as one 
body. The praying members should pay and the 
paying members should pray. In a certain pastor¬ 
ate, where an unfortunate condition of affairs ex¬ 
isted, we saw the trustees and stewards come out 
one night from an adjoining room where they had 
had a business meeting, march straight through the 
prayer room where revival services were being held, 
and all go out of the door! 

Business men know full well that the revelations 
in business, civic, and social life of late make a loud 
demand for an intensification of the deeper being of 
individuals and society if we are not to lose our 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 321 

grasp on the essential things that make ns men. 
There must be a general revival for the sake of a 
better public morality. The sickening revelations 
of late years are enough to send thoughtful men to 
their knees imploring God to forgive, to purify, and 
strengthen all hearts and currents of living, lest we 
be lost as a nation. There are hopeful indications 
in many directions that the country is coming to its 
senses. There has been an awakening in the civic 
consciousness that is now going on, and we pray will 
make itself more and more felt. But this movement 
for a better righteousness, though really spiritual in 
its essence, as we believe, must, like all moral enthu¬ 
siasms, be baptized in the Spirit and be strengthened 
and upheld by a devotional reconsecration to God. 

It is increasingly the conviction of students of 
evangelistic efforts that, for the most enduring and 
satisfactory results, the churches must depend on 
their own pastors rather than upon the more spec¬ 
tacular methods of professional evangelists, no mat¬ 
ter how seemingly successful. At any rate, we are 
driven to this, for the successful evangelists of the 
right stamp are altogether too few to serve the mul¬ 
titude of churches. But when the ordinary pastor, 
without the adventitious aids of novelty and adver¬ 
tising, and, perhaps, some sensationalism that he 
cannot bring himself to employ, commences his meet¬ 
ings, it is usually with a little band of class-meeting 
folk about him, the very ones whose spiritual natures 
are already pretty thoroughly cultivated, while a 
large contingent of respectable members are con¬ 
spicuous by their absence, and show no interest from 
first to last. The attempt is almost discouraging 
from the beginning, and raises the pertinent ques- 


322 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


tion whether any considerable numbers in onr 
churches really care for a revival or not, or whether 
it is only a little band of old-fashioned persons who 
have it on their minds. Dr. Torrey, one of the most 
successful evangelists now before the public, de¬ 
clares that any church can have a revival if all its 
membership will get together and pray long enough, 
and then begin to work in earnest. 

Think what might be accomplished if there could 
be a general rally of all those who seem so indifferent 
now! The audience rooms would be filled up; there 
would come encouragement to the pastor’s heart and 
to all his little band of praying men and women; there 
would be an uplifting fervor of song; there would be 
a greater variety of testimony and exhortation; 
there would come the enthusiasm that always attends 
numbers animated by sublime thoughts; the church 
in all of its public services, and in its prayer and 
class meetings, would get a glow and momentum from 
such glorious times of refreshing. 

More too: it would be inevitable that the outside 
public and the men and women leading sinful lives 
would be attracted. They could not keep away from 
such magnetic drawings. The problem now is how 
to get at the people who need conversion sadly 
enough, but who never come near the meetings de¬ 
signed for their benefit. And it is little wonder that 
they do not come when they are every day mixing 
with church members who themselves, they know, 
are not showing the smallest attention to the meet¬ 
ings. If the hard-headed, practical business men of 
our churches would only wake up to their duty, show 
themselves in the special services, work not for “a 
flash in the pan,” or “a brushwood fire,” or “a reli- 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 323 

gious convulsion, ’ 9 as they are apt to term a revival, 
bnt for a fervent and permanent work of grace in 
the hearts of all, and then go among their associates 
on the street and in their places of business, and give 
them a simple invitation to join them in the house of 
God, we are convinced we should soon see a grati¬ 
fying change in the religious condition of America. 

There are doubtless many places which have sel¬ 
dom been agitated profoundly on religious matters, 
and in which no great awakening has occurred since 
their earliest history. But there has been much 
quiet and effective work done, and, in a steady way 
and without particular excitement, souls have been 
converted and gathered into the fold. There is some¬ 
times a tendency on the part of earnest pastors and 
evangelists, judging everything by the frequency of 
distinctive and powerful revivals, to hold up such 
towns and churches to reproach and lamentation as 
being spiritually “twice dead.” Yet the general 
religious aspect of many such churches; the attend¬ 
ance of the membership upon the Sabbath and week¬ 
day services; the conscientious efforts of the Sunday 
schools; the noticeable enthusiasm of the young 
peopled meetings, and the spiritual power discern¬ 
ible in the other devotional gatherings, are manifest 
evidences that these parishes are not so altogether 
dead or apathetic as to justify imputations of a back¬ 
slidden state, or compel a gloomy, hopeless estimate 
of their spiritual welfare. Instead of bemoaning 
their “deadness,” thanks should be given to God for 
the grace wherein he is keeping his believers, and for 
those who are being added to the number of the 
saved through the ordinary ministration of the gos¬ 
pel from Sabbath to Sabbath. 


324 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


We know that, in writing this, we are liable to be 
misinterpreted, and some will make haste to say that, 
by felicitating the people npon their goodness and 
spirituality, we are begetting a deadening compla¬ 
cency and Pharisaic self-congratulation; and they 
think it vastly better to describe, in vivid terms, the 
Church’s dearth of religion and utter degeneracy, 
to denounce the sins and failures of Christ’s breth¬ 
ren, and thunder anathemas' upon the entire mem¬ 
bership. We cannot believe that this is either an 
honest or a fruitful method. Its untruthfulness is 
felt, if not openly resented. 

But, on the other hand, we are very far from 
desiring to lull any into a feeling of sweet assurance 
of the perfect satisfactoriness of their experience 
and attainments. Bather, without admitting the 
dyspeptic view with reference to such churches, we 
earnestly and affectionately exhort them to redouble 
their zeal with particular thought for the salvation 
of others. While regular and constant accessions to 
the Church throughout the year are the normal and 
healthy signs of a right religious activity, there is 
still abundant room and necessity for the periodic 
and specific revival, led by pastors and right-minded 
evangelists, to bring many a hesitating one, long in 
a Christian home, or attending Sabbath services, or 
found in the Sunday school, to the point of decision; 
and also for reaching those who rarely come to 
any church and confess little interest in religion. 
Churches may be neither careless nor worldly, and 
yet there is always a place in them for a larger con¬ 
secration and a fuller inspiration for definite work 
in the saving of men. 

There is a phrase—“the Chicago spirit”—which 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 325 

is current in the West, and which has large signifi¬ 
cance in its application to churches and their zeal 
for the conversion of men. There are those who 
prophesy that Chicago will soon pass Paris, overtake 
New York, and perhaps London herself in her swift 
and gigantic growth. Theologians have their defi¬ 
nitions of miracle. But, in the primary meaning of 
“a thing to he wondered at,” Chicago is the stand¬ 
ing miracle of the century past. As a testimony of 
what man can accomplish as he puts his own gran¬ 
deur into material expression, subjecting all things 
to himself, subordinating the universe to his behests, 
she is a marvel of all time. The Seven Wonders of 
the World will have to be enlarged to make room for 
her. But they make a great mistake who see nothing 
in the great Western metropolis but multitudinous 
buildings, where, but a few years ago, were marshes; 
endless miles of streets, and huge palaces of com¬ 
merce, boulevards, drives, parks, canals, statues, 
libraries, art galleries, club-houses, majestic public 
edifices, sumptuous residences, where, in the memory 
of living men, was an uninhabited wilderness. More 
than all these is the spirit of a great people, and bet¬ 
ter than all material expansion, more significant 
than heaped-up riches and amazing census returns, 
is the soul of a great municipality. Chicago has had 
faith, courage, persistency, and loftiness of aim, and 
there has been a glorious fulfillment to dream and 
endeavor. She has had heroism and hope, a pro¬ 
gressive and undaunted mind, enthusiasm and con¬ 
fidence in her own power and destiny. Those who 
will can find many things to criticize in external mat¬ 
ters and in her civic administration. Chicago—the 
most cosmopolitan city on the globe, with a popula- 


326 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


tion more difficult to handle than that which any 
other great center possesses—has had her full share 
of the evils which afflict big towns. Nevertheless, 
they who look deep will see at work dynamic and 
irresistible forces that are constantly raising the 
level of public life and pushing wickedness to the 
wall. The tendency is upward and forward in all 
educational, religious, artistic, and moral affairs. 
The place is getting to be a strong literary center 
and its schools and colleges are making it famous. 
R. J. Campbell, the English divine, when asked 
lately what he thought Chicago lacked, replied, 
“Soul!” But he did not know—how could he, a 
passing visitor, know?—the real life of that great 
corporation of two million people. 

What is the interpretation of “the Chicago 
spirit”? It describes the earnest cooperation of 
a citizenship to achieve a common good and fame for 
their city—the united, harmonious, aggressive ac¬ 
tion for specific, attainable results. Chicagoans have 
always stood together and worked together. With¬ 
out this combined effort Chicago would never have 
been Chicago. Other towns where there was languid 
interest in improvement or progress, where there 
were bickerings and divided counsels and cross-pur¬ 
poses, where the leaders could not get together for 
cooperation, have been left hopelessly in the rear. 
It is true, necessity was upon Chicago’s representa¬ 
tive men for collective action. In the older East 
cities had grown gradually for two hundred years, 
but in the newer civilization of the West a decade 
had to do the work of a century. There was a 
demand for tremendous energy and the concerted 
influence of all. The result was accomplishment. 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 327 

Would that in all Christendom, in all of the 
Churches of Christ, there might he the manifestation 
of ‘ ‘ the Chicago spirit’ ’! What might not be done, if, 
in the Church at large and in every local church, 
there could be fervent, wide-awake, intelligently 
directed zeal for the salvation of men and for the 
public good! “A long pull, a strong pull, and a pull 
all together” is what is needed for success, not only 
in cities but in churches, not only in business but in 
religion. If instead of feeble interest, opinionative- 
ness, distracted and opposing plans, acrimonious¬ 
ness, and quarrelsomeness—a state of affairs too 
frequently found—there could be in every church a 
“ concert of prayer” and endeavor, the hearty, 
whole-souled unanimity which subordinates per¬ 
sonal and selfish considerations to the general good, 
the embodiment of the splended “Chicago spirit” 
in mass-movements forward, there would certainly 
be speedier advance and more glorious accomplish¬ 
ment for Christ and his kingdom. 

Many indications in the religious world are giving 
the Church good ground for hope for a better reli¬ 
gious situation being speedily realized. The lay¬ 
men are awakening and the Laymen’s Missionary 
Movement is one of the marvels of our time. The 
laymen constitute the great body of the Church. 
They build its edifices, maintain its services, con¬ 
tribute to its great religious and philanthropic 
causes. They are the congregation to give audience 
to the truth. They support the minister who, in an 
earthly sense, is their servant, as, in the divine sense, 
he is the servant of Christ. They make up society, 
the community, city, State, and nation that the 
Church is commissioned to bless. If we consider 


328 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


their numbers, their multitudinous interests, their 
instrumentalities ready to be used for the kingdom, 
their wealth, social and political influence and enor¬ 
mous capacity, actualized and latent, for work in 
Christ’s cause, who shall say what they may not 
accomplish in evangelistic effort and missionary 
activity when once heartily enlisted? Along this 
same line the Brotherhood movement holds out great 
promise of multiplying the efficiency of the Church. 
“We believe that it is our duty, as servants and 
friends of Christ, to do good unto all men, to main¬ 
tain the public and private worship of God, to hal¬ 
low the Lord’s Day, to preserve the sanctity of the 
family, to uphold the just authority of the State, 
and so to live in all honesty, purity, and charity that 
our lives shall testify to Christ. We joyfully receive 
the word of Christ, bidding his people go into all the 
world and make disciples of all nations, and declare 
unto them that God was in Christ reconciling the 
world unto himself, and that he will have all men to 
be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 
We confidently trust that by his power and grace 
all his enemies and ours shall be finally overcome, and 
the kingdoms of this world shall be made the king¬ 
dom of our God and of his Christ. In this faith we 
abide; in this service we labor; and in this hope we 
pray, ‘Even so, come, Lord Jesus.’ ” 

This statement of the Brotherhood of the Presby¬ 
terian Church was accepted from the report of the 
Committee on Men’s Societies appointed by a late 
General Assembly, and subsequently adopted by the 
Brotherhood of that church as their confession of 
faith and service. The more we study this creed the 
more compact, comprehensive, and virile it becomes 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 


329 


to us. It is thoroughly Christian, attaches men to 
the Master in a personal and loving service, and 
makes his Spirit the center of all life and activity. It 
is a living creed in that it is much more than an intel¬ 
lectual document. It breathes more of service and 
is designed to appeal particularly to men. In single 
sentences it touches the subjects of the Sabbath, the 
family, and the state, and consecrates the members 
of the Brotherhood to a holy regard for the purity 
and perpetuation of these divine institutions. The 
subject of world-wide evangelism is the crowning 
note of this remarkable profession: “We confidently 
trust that by his power and grace all his enemies and 
ours shall he finally overcome, and the kingdoms of 
this world shall be made the kingdom of our God and 
of his Christ.” A Brotherhood with such an ideal 
and embodiment of faith and consecration to service 
will undoubtedly be a force and power. 

The Brotherhood movement will do much toward 
solving the problem of how to bring men to church 
and under the converting influence of the gospel. 
There is universal complaint of the comparative 
absence of men from church services. We refuse to 
believe that there is any general demoralization 
among the male population, or such a habit of neg¬ 
lect and carelessness that it cannot be remedied. 
There must be, first, manliness in the preacher, and 
he must present a manly Christ and a virile, robust 
gospel. Then the church must be made a solar place, 
radiating gladness and warm-heartedness. It must 
be made attractive, not so much by paltry novelties 
and gimcrack inventions to “ entertain, ’ ’ but by its 
whole-souled good-fellowship. The words ‘ ‘brother ’ y 
and “sister’’ must be rescued from any possible 


330 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


sanctimonious odor into which they have fallen, and 
he made to represent a true “gold coinage” of 
speech. The one obstacle that the faithful pastor, in 
trying to build up his membership and get men into 
the fold, runs against more frequently than any 
other, is that the church is cold and unsociable. “I 
went there a number of times and they froze me out. 
Not a person spoke to me. You’ll never get me within 
those doors again.” Perhaps the complainant is 
somewhat to blame. Perhaps he didn’t wait and give 
the people a chance, but slipped out from his rear pew 
immediately after the benediction. And perhaps— 
perhaps what he said is lamentably true. The pastor 
has prayed for “the stranger within our gates”— 
and that is all. We have known this situation, even 
when the church was protesting, by all that was good, 
that there never was such a sociable people as they. 
So they were—among themselves. But the visiting 
worshiper, who did not belong to any of the little 
hand-shaking groups of cordial folk, was too fre¬ 
quently unnoticed. Such a demeanor handicaps the 
pastor to the very point of sheer discouragement. 

It has been stated, and we believe it true, that no 
preacher, however eloquent, can fill his church to-day 
by the attraction of his sermons. If the church is 
filled, it will he because the whole membership has 
cooperated, and with loving attention and courteous 
persuasion, addressed to friends and neighbors, 
“compelled them to come in.” Those churches, like 
the temple of Dr. Russell Conwell, of Philadelphia, 
which have complete and well-drilled organizations 
to use sociability in the service of religion, are 
crowded to the doors. There is a current religious 
colloquialism—the pastor, it is said, must be a “good 


THE LAYMEN AND THE REVIVAL 


331 


mixer. ’ ’ But is there not an equal demand on each 
member for such a qualification! 

There is an easy remedy for half-filled audi¬ 
toriums and deserted “Sunday night services.” 
There is a method by which, in revival services, 
others may be found besides church members and 
the “faithful ’’ who are always at prayer meeting. 
Every member of the Church should be a recruiting 
sergeant. If those who are “gospel-logged’’ and 
dying of a dyspepsia of preaching from overfeeding, 
a gout of religion, an obesity of piety, a spiritual 
“fatty degeneration of the heart/’ brought on by 
lack of exercise, would interest themselves in 
normal and spontaneous ways in other people, the 
results would not be long waiting to justify such 
activity. What a power might the Church utilize if 
the latent potentialities of its membership would only 
become real and practical. Might we not expect, 
then, a mighty forward movement in Christianity! 

It is sometimes claimed that people will be fre¬ 
quently driven away by the approaches of crude 
zealots seeking to convert others and perfunctorily 
discharging what they regard as a religious duty, 
intrusively overriding the proper limits of delicacy. 
It is represented that religion is a thing so personal, 
the soul-life something so sacred, that most people 
resent peremptory and rude inquiry about it. They 
maintain a rightful reserve, which is offended by offi¬ 
cious brusqueness in others who have a stand-and- 
deliver manner of asking whether those they meet are 
Christians or not. It may be that there is need of 
this warning. There must be something besides zeal 
to win men to Christ—there must be infinite tact, con¬ 
sideration, preparation by prayer, and much study of 


332 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


tlie Scriptures, and meditation on method. But, ordi¬ 
narily, the true Christian, who has learned the 
gentleness of Jesus, who is influenced by a real and 
not a galvanized love for his brother whom he would 
approach, who has the experience of the Christ-filled 
life, will make few or no mistakes. By all means let 
him address himself to the important work at once. 

It was after the foregoing pages had been written 
and while this volume was awaiting the press that 
the marvelous “Men and Religion’’ Movement be¬ 
gan its activities. The Movement embraces in its 
program not only spiritual ends but, broadly, all 
redemptive efforts—physical, mental, social, civic— 
for men individually and collectively. It insists 
that “religion is a man’s job.” It pledges men for 
attendance at Sunday and mid-week services; in¬ 
vites and accompanies to worship the neglectful; 
supports Bible study and lecture classes; works 
with and for boys, both religiously and recreation- 
ally; labors in evangelistic campaigns; organizes 
Sunday schools and institutes; forms inter-church 
federations; cooperates with labor unions, civic and 
social reform bodies, and home and foreign mission¬ 
ary boards—and much else. 

A battalion of about thirty picked men moves 
from city to city, and everywhere it has gone there 
has been a wonderful awakening. Its leaders say: 
“We have tried ethical culture, various rationalistic 
philosophies, and the enforcement of law. The one 
thing left with which to remedy wrong doing and 
wrong thinking is religion. If we can arouse the 
spirit of true and sincere religion among the men 
of this continent—so they will put it in actual prac¬ 
tice—we have a sure cure for existing evils.” 


CHAPTER XII 

Ideals and Methods in Evangelism 

Without question the imperative necessity for 
success in moving men out of positive sinfulness or 
religious indifference into a state of readiness to 
accept the gospel conditions is a feeling on their part 
that those who are urging them along evangelical 
lines are absolutely sincere. There is no doubt that 
those who came under the influence of John Wesley, 
Whitefield, and the early Methodists never ques¬ 
tioned the entire disinterestedness and sincerity of 
these leaders and disciples. In Wesley’s case to 
engage a man—any man, even the hostler who tied 
up his horse—almost from the moment of meeting, 
in religious conversation was as natural as breath¬ 
ing. There was nothing forced or artificial about it, 
nothing put on, nothing done under pressure of 
unwelcome obligation. Everything was spontaneous 
and unaffected. 

If there could be more of that spirit in our modern 
ministers, it would be far better. We fear that many 
unconverted people somehow get the impression that 
the appeals from the pulpit are, in too many cases, 
rather mechanical and perfunctory; that the min¬ 
ister is “just preaching”; that his attitude toward 
them is predominatingly professional and not 
directly human; that he is talking to them like a 
parson and not as man to man; that the time of year 
usually designated for revival services having ar¬ 
rived, his zeal for the conversion of souls is the thing 
333 


334 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


that may be expected, and he, accordingly, gives 
himself np to the proper amount of enthusiasm. 

Now, the unconverted man may not put the matter 
quite as explicitly before himself as this. But he 
may have a vague feeling which brings about the 
same results. If he sees the minister apparently 
vastly concerned about his salvation during four 
weeks in the year, and then apparently quite uncon¬ 
cerned for the remaining forty-eight weeks, he is 
apt to think that his solicitude for him is neither 
very real, intense, or abiding, and he discounts the 
sermonic invitations and exhortations by so much. 

And is he not excusable? Is not his suspicion 
founded upon some reasonable considerations? 
Exactly the same attitude of mind will be taken 
toward the evangelist if the unconverted hearer gets 
to imagining, perhaps with some degree of reason, 
that the speaker is talking to the galleries, saying a 
lot of startling things just for effect and the sensa¬ 
tionalism of the moment. 

Sunday is coming and the minister has to have his 
two sermons ready. It’s his business. By that 
sermon-making craft he earns his bread. If it is 
in the winter, he must meet expectations and preach 
revival sermons. During the spring and summer he 
can return to other themes. Our preachers do not 
consciously succumb to these insidious suggestions. 
We believe them, as a class, to be as absolutely sin¬ 
cere and earnest in their intentions as it is given to 
mortals to be. But, nevertheless, there stands that 
danger of professionalism against which they must 
constantly be on their guard. No preacher ought to 
take any theme, or utter any sentiment, or make any 
entreaty bearing upon the salvation of men without 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 335 

directly searching himself and asking whether, down 
in the bottom of his soul, he really believes it all, 
and feels it, or whether—God forbid!—he is simply 
proclaiming it in unconscious obedience to a tra¬ 
ditional orthodoxy, rehearsing a theology of the 
schools rather than the innermost conviction of his 
own deepest self. 

That minister will surely have converts, will never 
fail in turning men’s feet into the paths of life, if, 
as they observe him in his private as well as his pub¬ 
lic life, in his everyday behavior as well as in his 
Sunday and “special service” demeanors, through¬ 
out the year as welf as in the revival season, men 
outside of the kingdom are compelled to say: “That 
is an honest, sincere, whole-souled man! He believes 
through and through what he says. He is mani¬ 
festly concerned for me. He declares that I need 
Christ, that my life will not be complete without him, 
that the Christless life stands in insufficiency here 
and in jeopardy hereafter. He affirms positively 
that Christ can make a changed man of me, and he 
speaks it in a way that convinces me that he believes 
it himself without mental reservation. There is no 
smallest doubt that he is altogether persuaded that 
Christ is an absolute necessity for my life, that with¬ 
out him there is no salvation for me.” 

When such an impression is made, conversions are 
certain to follow. Such sincerity in convictions is 
as sure to affect men as the flaw in conviction is to 
leave them untouched. 

And the same truth applies to the members of 
our churches. If only in prayer meetings and in 
revival services or at set times they express con¬ 
cern for the religious welfare of others, the super- 


336 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


ficiality and artificiality of it will be apparent, and 
the unconverted will scarcely take at their face value 
their pious expressions of apprehension. One of 
our English religious papers declares that it is being 
said in many quarters that “the typical Christian 
cares little or nothing for those that are outside, and 
regards the Church as a comfortable and exclusive 
society existing for himself and fellow members, 
rather than as a mighty agency, eager in purpose 
and sacrificial in spirit, for reconciling the world 
to God.” In many ordinary churches, the writer 
asserts, “there is little or no effort to get the out¬ 
side people in, and if they do come, there is not a 
very hearty welcome. ’ ’ 

Laymen over there are affirming that such an 
attitude constitutes a denial of the very element of 
the Christian spirit. One says, “The Church does 
not expect conversions.” Another, a local preacher 
for more than forty years and a steward for nearly 
twenty, “The passion for God has gone out of the 
churches, and with it the yearning expectancy for 
conversions.” Such expressions may be too exag¬ 
gerated and pessimistic, but it would indeed seem 
that any church has in its own membership the sure 
conditions of a successful revival. Permit us to 
quote the Methodist Eecorder of London on this 
subject: ‘ ‘ There is no doubt that much of the fire of 
the pulpit lies in the pew, that a congregation can 
melt an iceberg if it should chance to be in the pul¬ 
pit. There is an amazing contribution to the wonder¬ 
ful works of God in the tone and instinct of a congre¬ 
gation. It is no use trying to get away from the 
fact. Every preacher knows it; and every observant 
member of a congregation has felt the power of an 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 


337 


assembly before the preacher has so much as come 
into the pulpit. It is no use putting the whole blame 
of sterility in the matter of converting power upon 
the shoulders of the preacher. The greater part of 
it is in another place, and the sooner it is recognized 
the better. What is one against five hundred, if the 
five hundred be of one heart? If all the people come 
together, having desired in the right way, and at 
the right place, and come in a spirit of expectant 
love, very little indeed depends upon the pulpit. 
The Church has never been dependent upon officials 
and leaders, nor even on prophets; it depends on 
God alone. Who has not known revivals that have 
broken out, that have fallen as it were from heaven, 
without the intervention of any preacher, because all 
of the people were of one mind and heart? That is 
one side of a grave difficulty; and when a preacher 
goes into the pulpit, however much evangelical pas¬ 
sion he may have in his heart, there will be a falling 
of his words as upon empty air, if there is an empti¬ 
ness in the pews.” 

Not long since the Christian Guardian, of Toronto, 
quoted a clergyman (not a Methodist) as saying, in 
a discussion, with earnestness and conviction that 
left no doubt as to his sincerity, “lam not an evan¬ 
gelist; I am sorry for it, but I am not an evangelist.” 
Back of the words there evidently lay the yearning 
of the true pastor’s heart for the unsaved of his 
congregation; the evangelistic passion was there, 
but the skill of the evangelist had been, as he thought, 
denied. 

And yet, perhaps, this brother interpreted evan¬ 
gelism too narrowly. In a true sense every faithful 
and consistent follower of Jesus Christ, who in his 


338 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


own daily life illustrates the teaching of his Master, 
and reincarnates his Spirit, is an evangelist. He is 
verily proclaiming in one of the best ways possible 
the truth of Christ and the fact of Christ before 
men. Even though he do not preach or testify, or 
strive to persuade men to accept salvation by per¬ 
sonally pleading with them, being deterred, perhaps, 
as we have said, in the latter, by some native diffi¬ 
dence or feeling of incapacity or deference for 
another’s sacredness of personality, he is still, even 
in his unconscious influence, an evangelist. He is a 
fisher of men, and though he may not know it, others 
are being led to higher spiritual levels through his 
quiet working out of the gospel in commonplace 
duties. 

There is evangelism and evangelism, there are 
evangelists and evangelists. We mistake if we 
identify evangelism with only one type of preach¬ 
ing, though popularly we use the word to designate 
a specific sort of work. For this sort doubtless 
certain natural endowments combine to make a man 
a success for this particular field. Such a man might 
not succeed as well as his brother in a regular pas¬ 
torate ; but the main strength of the Church must be 
in its regular pastorates. 

But there is no use trying to evade or obscure the 
very obvious fact, which Saint Paul clearly recog¬ 
nized, that there are diversities of gifts. He speaks 
of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, 
and they were all engaged in the work of perfecting 
the saints, ministering, the building up of the body 
of Christ. Paul did not disparage either apostle, 
prophet, pastor, or teacher because he was not tech¬ 
nically an evangelist. In the broad sense, if not 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 339 

specifically, they were all doing evangelistic work, 
but not all in the same way. A man is as God made 
him, and the responsibility for his personality and 
temperament must be thrown back upon God. A 
man must take himself as he is and do the work he 
can. He cannot make himself over and he like some¬ 
body else, try as he may. He will do his best work in 
the world by being absolutely true to his own indi¬ 
viduality and genius. No matter how ardently some 
of our best ministers might covet the number of 
converts that a Thomas Harrison, or a “Billy” 
Sunday or a Torrey or a Chapman or a Munhall 
might have put down to them, they could no more be 
like those men or act like them or talk like them than 
they could fly. And they might as well accommodate 
themselves to that inevitable fact, stop apologizing 
for supposed shortcomings, and quit disparaging 
themselves and accusing themselves of defects which 
are no defects, but simply variations in mental and 
constitutional make-up. Let each man do his own 
work, in his own fashion, in his own appointed field, 
according to his own best lights, and leave to God 
the rest. Any other course is sure to lead to enervat¬ 
ing self-depreciation and self-distrust—to the loss 
of heart and hope and efficiency. 

If God has created a man with a philosophical and 
speculative turn of mind, and with a love for litera¬ 
ture or poetry or science, and afterward by his 
Spirit calls that man into the ministry, how can any¬ 
thing else be expected than, in presenting gospel 
truth, such a preacher will spontaneously, following 
his native bent, run it into philosophical molds, 
effectively illustrating it with literary references, 
poetical quotations, or scientific facts? Some other 


340 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


preacher, who has neither the disposition nor the 
taste for this, who is not led to it by any inborn 
inclination and habit of mind, may affect to scorn 
and severely criticize such preaching and preachers. 
But if it be real preaching—earnest, honest, sincere, 
helpful—such criticism is very foolish and uncalled 
for. The Church needs all sorts of servants, and 
monotony and stereotyped uniformity are as bad in 
her pulpits as anywhere else. Wisdom is justified 
of her children, and the history of Christianity has 
shown how excellent in results has been the work of 
many ministers whose preaching might be cynically 
referred to as “sicklied o’er with the pale cast of 
thought.” They have quickened spiritual impulses 
and stood for righteousness and denounced evils. 

Nevertheless, we believe, as we have previously 
contended, that preachers of this class would do well 
to watch themselves lest their innate tendencies be¬ 
come too pronounced and give a somewhat one-sided 
aspect to their preaching. Their philosophical read¬ 
ing must not usurp the place of Bible study. And 
if they will cultivate that personal knowledge of 
Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, if they will seek 
closeness of communion with God, if they will be 
fervent in prayer, the evangelistic instinct will cer¬ 
tainly grow in them, and whatever form their mes¬ 
sage may take, it will glow with earnestness, con¬ 
viction, and saving power for men. To count 
converts and to bring them into the Church is a 
blessed privilege, and many preachers of the class 
we are describing could, perhaps, have much more 
success than they imagine if, in their own way, they 
would definitely try to concentrate their efforts to 
such an end. Nevertheless, even where such fruit- 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 341 

age is not numerically in evidence, there should not 
be discouragement. No man who tries faithfully to 
present Christ and his gospel can tell the good he is 
doing. The seed falls into unsuspected furrows, and 
grows secretly and springs up, and the sower may 
not know that it came from his casting. 

The editor of the Guardian says: ‘‘Some men 
seem to be peculiarly adapted to what we call evan¬ 
gelistic work, and other men seem to have a peculiar 
power to strengthen and consolidate the Church, 
while a few men seem to have the power to change 
the whole spiritual tone of the Church, and cause it 
to reach a distinctly higher level. Others again 
seem bom for the express purpose of waging war 
against unrighteousness, and the community where 
they dwell is certain to see the inauguration of a 
campaign for civic and national purity . 9 9 

In each case let us sing our Te Deums and Glorias 
to the God who “fulfills himself in many ways,” and 
for whom 

Thousands at his bidding speed. 

And post o’er land and ocean without rest. 

The present is ho time for criticism and captious¬ 
ness. No one is having such large and enduring suc¬ 
cess in evangelism as to entitle him to fling scorn at 
his less conspicuous brother or speak contemptuously 
of his modest word of suggestion. Every allowance 
must be made for individuality and every man must 
be true to his own talent. Many a pastor who has 
never headed “A Great Revival” has, by quiet meth¬ 
ods among young people and others, and by system¬ 
atic pastoral and pulpit work, built up strong and 
growing memberships which were added to Sunday 
by Sunday from thoughtful followers quietly adopt- 


342 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


ing the Christian life. The present religions situation 
is confessedly so difficult of diagnosis, so baffling to 
the most consecrated and zealous effort, that, in the 
emergency, light ought to be welcomed from any 
quarter. Everyone who has a word that he thinks 
has promise in it ought to be encouraged to speak it. 
There must be the frankest conference and the ut¬ 
most consideration and patience. Dogmatism is 
ruled out altogether. 

It may be true that we have come to that stage of 
darkness which is the surest precursor to the dawn 
—to that point of man’s importunity which is God’s 
opportunity. This might seem to be the lesson of the 
revival in Wales, which seemed to burst out spon¬ 
taneously without engineering. It was after the 
order of Melchizedek, without committees, without 
commissions, without constitution, having neither 
beginning in motions nor end in organization. It 
was in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 
that faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, 
but in the power of God. 

We do not wish to intimate anything seemingly 
derogatory to the present organization, in any 
Church, of machinery whose mission is to promote 
aggressive evangelism. The idea of such “commis¬ 
sions” is excellently conceived. In spiritual cam¬ 
paigns, as in military and political ones, there must, 
doubtless, be careful foresight and planning. The 
human element cannot be overlooked. Man must 
cooperate with God, and that cooperation must not 
be careless and haphazard. Nevertheless, spiritual 
movements must be spiritually inspired and con¬ 
trolled, and our trust must not be so much in methods 
and machinery as in the energizing and directing 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 343 

Deity and the free and responsive spirit of man. In 
evangelism, as in missionary enterprise, success 
comes “not by an army, nor by power, but by my 
spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, ’ ’ and this great truth 
would be immediately admitted by every member of 
any commission on evangelism. 

In a symposium on evangelism, to which some 
fifty or more writers made brief contributions, it 
was significant to observe how many emphasized the 
need of doing direct, personal work—of talking in 
earnest, sensible fashion to unconverted people 
about their spiritual needs. The majority of the 
writers, while advocating the public meetings, were 
convinced that this face-to-face and heart-to-heart 
work, man with man, soul with soul, friend with 
friend, carried on by both pastor and members, not 
perfunctorily or under the stress of “duty” only, 
but on the promptings of a real interest and an ear¬ 
nest love, ought never to be omitted. It was vital and 
indispensable. And in these conversations there 
must be such a simple-hearted motive, and such a 
sincere wish to help others, that the resulting nat¬ 
uralness shall banish all touches of professionalism 
—all stilted talk, pietistic platitudes, stock phrases, 
and other artificialities, which are immediately 
detected, felt, and drawn away from. Honesty, 
straightforwardness, and evident friendship and con¬ 
cern, however haltingly the words may come, will 
never offend. They have a potency in them which 
is well-nigh irresistible. We believe that the chief 
obstacle in the whole situation is the present 
difficulty in filling Christians with this down¬ 
right conviction concerning their neighbor’s spir¬ 
itual good, and arousing in them the same spirit 


344 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


which led Andrew to find Peter and Philip to find 
Nathanael. 

That the “people of the abyss,” as Jack London 
calls them—men worse than “down and out,” the 
utterly wretched and used-up, the defeated, demoral¬ 
ized, disgusted victims of vice and slaves of sin— 
should listen to any gospel promise which offered 
help and salvation is scarcely to be wondered at. 
If there is any sensibility left, those who have 
touched bottom must feel their moral destitution, 
the failure and wreck of their lives, and grasp 
eagerly and desperately at any proffer of assistance 
and recovery. This is the reiterated story of the 
city missions in the Boweries and Water Street, 
the slums of London, New York, and Chicago, and 
among the depraved and lost who recruit the ranks 
of the “twice-born.” Their situation could not be 
worse. They know it perfectly well; and the evan¬ 
gelist knows it too, and can confidently assure them 
that any change at all will certainly be a change for 
the better, and that Christ offers them everything 
in the place of the nothing they have. 

But the situation is considerably changed when 
evangelism is attempted among those of a social 
stratum much above that of the “depressed” and 
“submerged.” We do not have in mind exclusively 
the very rich, or even the wealthy, though these are 
included in what we are about to say. But we are 
thinking of the great mass of people in moderate or 
well-to-do circumstances, safely above the poverty 
line and with no anxiety about possible material 
want; people who live in respectable homes, wear 
pretty good clothes, have plenty to eat, enjoy them¬ 
selves, move in very reputable society circles, have 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 345 

the esteem of their neighbors, maintain their credit, 
hold an excellent business reputation, have improved 
their educational advantages, keep within the bounds 
of established morality. If such as these seem quite 
indifferent to the claims of the definitely religious 
life; if they give no evidence of any thought or con¬ 
cern about their spiritual development; if the Bible, 
prayer, the Sabbath, the services of the church have 
little place in their lives, a problem not easy of solu¬ 
tion is presented. Most of them may not belong at 
all to the “worldly,’’ or dissipated or reckless class, 
or to the devotees of pleasure. Their habits are 
good. But they are so completely comfortable and 
satisfied that physical deprivation furnishes no lev¬ 
erage by which they may be lifted up onto any spirit¬ 
ual plane. 

The whole tendency of our modern times makes 
for this state of mind. By the discoveries of science, 
by the multiplication of modern labor-saving inven¬ 
tions, by the extensions of commerce, conveniences 
and luxuries even, unattainable in former days, have 
been brought into the homes of thousands. The 
world is becoming a more and more desirable place 
in which to live. Its hardships are being constantly 
eliminated. Existence is easy and enjoyable for 
an increasing number. “The good things of life” 
within reach are found very satisfying. The spread 
of socialistic teachings and of the doctrines of Chris¬ 
tian Science and similar cults has presented purely 
physical well-being as a gospel goal. 

We are far from deploring this growth of comfort 
in living. In and by itself it is something to rejoice 
in. Increasingly man is being raised in the scale of 
his activities and is less and less a mere beast of 


346 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


burden. Steam and electricity are lifting the loads 
off his back, and, in factory and home, machinery is 
replacing human fiber and muscle. This is a by¬ 
product of Christianity. The laboring and the 
heavy-laden are finding in the material realm relief 
and rest, whereof all sane thinkers must be glad. 
It is only when these multiplied physical advantages 
seem to stifle, by their satisfactions, the hunger of 
the soul, that evil results. 

We believe that, to meet this problem, in ordinary 
preaching there should be a pretty constant insist¬ 
ence upon the necessity of a definite cultivation of 
the Godward side of human nature, of a specific 
attainment of spirituality in addition to correctness 
of deportment. Man cannot live by bread alone, but 
by every God-given thought and aspiration. The 
utter insufficiency of the purely secular life must be 
shown, the inability of merely material goods to sat¬ 
isfy the deepest cravings of the soul which may 
starve amid earthly plenty. The special needs of 
the spirit in its devotional aspects, in its recognition 
of God and communion with him, in its appreciation 
of the mind of Christ and in daily intercourse with 
his Spirit, ought to be so repeatedly dwelt upon that 
the latent capacities in the hearts of the hearers 
would awake in response. The man, it must be 
shown, is only half-man until the powers and recep¬ 
tivities of the soul have come to expression. 

Many cases of those in whom the spiritual sense 
seems quite undeveloped will need to be treated indi¬ 
vidually. The pastor or evangelist will best draw 
them out in private, serious conversation. It may be 
that the lurking question, “What lack I yet?” is 
really making them somewhat uncomfortable. It 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 347 

may be that they are “not far from the kingdom of 
God. ’ ’ If their lives are resting upon a sure founda¬ 
tion, they ought to be encouraged with the thought 
that this is the main, the essential thing in religion; 
that in that far (and it is very far) they are Chris¬ 
tians, and that what is further required is the 
conscious turning of the soul in trust, love, and 
adoration toward the Father, and the “practice of 
the presence of God” in a life of spiritual joy, peace, 
and holiness. 

The Christian life should be presented to such as 
an inestimable privilege that they cannot afford to 
miss. To quote Henry C. King: “Emerson says: 
‘Profligacy consists not in spending years of time, 
or chests of money, but in spending them off the line 
of your career.’ In like manner to be ‘lost’ is to be 
lost off the line of God’s own will for us, lost away 
from home, and from the Father’s presence, and 
from the loving spirit of his life. To be ‘saved,’ on 
the other hand, is the simple sharing in the Father’s 
life, and in his love for men.” 

Denunciation, warning, threatening have their 
place. But, for the pulpit of to-day, the conse¬ 
quences of sin must be stated, not in literalistic 
pictures of flame and bodily torture, but ethically, 
interpreting rationally the New Testament meta¬ 
phors, in the terrible results in character. Yet, after 
this, the putting of religious experience as privilege, 
as the highest conception of life’s best investment of 
itself, will always appeal most convincingly to rea¬ 
sonable men and women. Many of them are already 
actively philanthropic and can be touched along the 
line of their humane impulses. They love their fel¬ 
low men. Christ taught that love to him was in- 


348 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


volved and implied in such. love. Love being present 
in the heart, they ought to be helped to extend it to 
God, who is their neighbor also, and to render spirit¬ 
ual service as well as social service. 

An d where the humanitarian emotions are dor¬ 
mant the appeal for the religious life might well be 
made on the necessity of “more laborers in the 
vineyard” of humanity, where there is so much 
suffering, so many good causes that need help, so 
many evils to be combated. There is need of a new 
chivalry and of new Crusaders. “Repent,” cried 
both John and Jesus, “for the kingdom of heaven is 
at hand! ’ ’ Christ wants fellow workers, men freed 
from the handicap of sin, and willing to be used by 
him in the regeneration of the world. His voice 
sounds forth, “Whom shall I send, and who will go 
for us?” and a multitude of the self-contented, stand¬ 
ing idle in the market place, ought to answer, stirred 
by the word of the gospel message, ‘ ‘ Here are we; 
send us! ” 

Is it not true of most of us that our duties in rela¬ 
tion to the conversion of others seem to sit upon our 
consciences quite lightly except during some revival 
season or under the urgency of some stressful ser¬ 
mon? It is not to be imagined that the unconverted 
do not detect a certain artificiality in an appeal at 
such times from people who, during most of the 
year, meet them daily, but show, not only no concern 
about them, but even no particular thought. Is it 
not somewhat natural that they should betray a little 
resentment when, in the lack of real interest and 
sympathy for them, they are made the objects of a 
galvanized solicitude? We heard of one such case 
lately where the unconverted young man, who loved 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 349 

sincerity and afterward united with the Church, 
explained his refusal to “go forward” where the 
circumstances were such as we have described. “I 
wasn’t going to gratify him,” he said, “and then 
have him go around everywhere and brag how he 
had landed me.” 

We are no advocate of the endless-chain method 
in letter-writing for the purpose of obtaining chari¬ 
table or other funds. It has proved itself to he an 
imposition on individuals, and, unless many should 
venture to do that atrocious and wicked thing— 
“break the chain”—the final amounts gathered 
would exceed the figures measuring the fixed stars. 
But there is another form of endless chain that we 
would recommend that was suggested to us by the 
remark attributed to a sagacious political leader in 
a great city. He called his workers together and said 
to them: “Now, I don’t expect each one of you to win 
all the voters of the city over to our party, and I 
don’t want any of you to try it. All I want each of 
you to do is to start out and convince a single man 
that he must vote our ticket, get his promise, and 
then make him also promise to go out and find an¬ 
other man whom he will work over in the same way. 
Then you can commence on another fellow.” 

It is our conviction that this “still hunt,” as the 
politicians call it, is one of the very best methods to 
pursue in an evangelistic campaign. We believe 
that this concentration of effort on a single and defi¬ 
nite end which is not so general as to be confusing, 
not so formidable as to be discouraging, is one of 
the best suggestions that can be employed in lay 
activity for conversions. If the politician’s way of 
laboring for one at a time, and then turning the fresh 


350 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


conquest out to do a similar thing, and so on indefi¬ 
nitely until the network of agents covers the whole 
population—if this strategic plan could be followed 
in the Church, we believe there would be many more 
conversions. 

The ‘‘Win-One Society” is the suggestive name of 
an admirable organization in the churches. Its 
motto is, “Win one by one.” Its conditions of mem¬ 
bership are subscription to the following covenant: 

“1. To give ONE period of fifteen piinutes daily, 
preferably during the first morning hour, to per¬ 
sonal Bible study, meditation, and secret prayer. 

“2. To be ONE to pray definitely and daily for 
myself, my pastor, my church, and my community, 
that there may be a genuine revival in at least that 
ONE church, and in that ONE community. 

“3. To count ONE, unless providentially pre¬ 
vented, in the preaching services on Sunday, ONE in 
the weekly prayer-meeting, ONE in the special evan¬ 
gelistic services whenever held, and to bring ONE 
with me whenever possible. 

“4. To endeavor to win ONE to Christ at the first 
opportunity, and to continue to win ONE by one as 
the Holy Spirit shall give me grace and guidance. 

“5. To invite at least ONE to unite with the WIN- 
ONE SOCIETY, and to use the influence of ONE 
consecrated life to the furtherance of the principles 
advocated therein.” 

The society has no officers and no meetings. In¬ 
side the general society there are “Circles” con¬ 
nected, as in the Chautauqua organization, with the 
local church. The Win-One Circle is a small com¬ 
pany of earnest Christians who desire to be success¬ 
ful soul winners, and who will agree to meet at a 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 351 

stated season for the definite study and practice of 
winning others to Christ. It means not only the 
theory but the work of soul-winning. The Circle is 
composed of all that hunger for soul-winning effi¬ 
ciency. Young people especially—Sunday school 
teachers, earnest young men and women in our Sun¬ 
day schools, and particularly those who have just 
begun the Christian life—these, and all whom they 
can persuade to a like service, should be among the 
first to form a Win-One Circle. 

The Eev. Dr. Charles S. Mills tells of some methods 
he has employed in building up a membership which 
has increased with remarkable rapidity and steadi¬ 
ness, following natural lines of activity. His account 
is sp full of suggestiveness, and ought to be so par¬ 
ticularly helpful to pastors, that we transfer his 
enumeration of “special methods” and give them 
prominent place and emphasis here: 

“The inspiration of public worship lifted to the 
highest plane of attractiveness and dignity, chorus 
and soloists working directly with the pastor to bring 
unity and power. 

‘ 4 The development of an atmosphere in the Church 
calculated to promote Christian nurture and magni¬ 
fying the Christian life as the only one worth living. 

“The employment of the Sunday school as a 
powerful evangelizing agent in the contact of a ma¬ 
ture Christian mind with those in process of develop¬ 
ment, it being understood that the teachers of the 
older classes must assume the chief responsibility in 
leading those committed to their care into the Chris¬ 
tian life. 

“The systematic presentation of the meaning, 
principles, and claims of Christianity to children 


352 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


from twelve to sixteen years of age in a Christian 
nurture class, marked by great interest and enthu¬ 
siasm. 

“The exaltation of the imperative of personal 
service by the entire membership, so that the Church 
accepts the clear conviction that the harvest depends 
primarily upon definite, prayerful, individual effort, 

‘ ‘ The adaptation of the work of the Church to the 
life of the community, ministering daily to its needs 
in a multitude of forms, infusing every method with 
the spirit of Christian consecration and utilizing 
every point of contact as an opportunity to lead 
men to the highest life.” 

It is doubtless true that many pastors have reacted 
against the mechanism of too much method and too 
many patented devices for getting men into the 
kingdom. They do not believe that the Holy Spirit 
is to be compelled by means of any new inventions 
for getting men to commit themselves to a Christian 
life when they seem indifferent to honest, straight¬ 
forward appeal and loving persuasion. Neverthe¬ 
less, there must be some principles which should be 
kept clearly in mind to furnish guidance in all re¬ 
vival efforts. 

It must be clearly discerned, in the first place, that 
the citadel to be carried is the man’s will, and any¬ 
thing that stops short of changing that fundamental 
will fails. “ Anything which is designed to sweep a 
non-Christian hearer along with the crowd,” says 
a writer on this theme , 1 ‘ anything which would tend 
to sway a man with an evanescent emotion, is mere¬ 
tricious and should be rigidly disowned by Christian 
workers. ’ ’ We must respect the personality of those 
for whose spiritual good we are laboring; and we do 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 353 

not respect it, but rather insult it, when we employ 
any artifice to lead them to act impulsively, under 
a transient impression, and not with a solemn and 
deliberate decision of will, which is to be sincere and 
final. 

It is astonishing, when we reflect upon it, that, 
with all the preaching of various dogmas and doc¬ 
trines and any amount of exhortation, there is so 
seldom a series of clear, simple sermons, telling 
explicitly what it is to be a Christian. With some 
little irreverence, but with no little pertinence, the 
unconverted have sometimes retorted, “Why don’t 
you stop teasing us to ‘come to Jesus’ long enough 
to really tell us what you mean by the phrase ? ” Of 
course, there is a general conception of the character 
of the claims of Christ abroad in the community, but 
when it comes to individual action men want specific 
information and direction. Although the demands 
of our faith are very simple, they need to be repeated 
again and again in varied and freshened phrase, for 
unconverted men frequently make the matter too 
complex and difficult, and implicate it with any 
amount of confusing theology. They do not under¬ 
stand the simplicity which is in Christ, and there¬ 
fore there must be a large and luminous instruc¬ 
tional element in all evangelistic exhortation. 

While, as we have said above, it is the will which 
must be influenced, it goes without saying that this 
cannot be done by any frigid presentation of truth 
or unmoved listening to it. “A man may take Christ 
dry-eyed, but no man ought to take Christ in cold 
blood.” It is incredible that such a transaction as 
the repentance and forsaking of sin and the accept¬ 
ance of a Saviour should be unaccompanied by the 


354 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


profoundest feelings. These feelings are not the 
final test of conversion or of the Christian life, for 
that life mnst evidence itself in great principles of 
conduct. But the emotions necessarily attend and 
indicate the great change, and no dread of any excite¬ 
ment or “fanaticism” ought ever to stifle them. 
The intelligent comprehension of what Christ would 
have men become and do, the awakening and de¬ 
termination of the will to do it, the vow of consecra¬ 
tion in the warmth of a heartfelt emotion—these are 
the great requisites to be kept in mind in all evan¬ 
gelical activity. 

What, then, may be considered the best presenta¬ 
tion of the gospel for our age, particularly in mov¬ 
ing men to accept Christ? 

There is agreement upon the statement that all 
ministers must recognize, and accommodate them¬ 
selves to the fact, that ours is a peculiarly undog- 
matic age and that the truth must be put in other 
forms. There must be careful and systematic teach¬ 
ing as to the primary elements of Christianity, and 
plain, definite, comprehensible instruction as to what 
it is to be a Christian. Even at the risk of apparent 
sameness there must be constant reiteration of the 
essentials of the faith. The lesson as to what is 
involved in being a follower of Christ is not learned 
all at once or easily. One repetition will not suffice. 
After the manner of the secular teacher in the class¬ 
room, it must be patiently gone over again and 
again. And the pastor-teacher must have mastered 
the lesson himself, must be able to tell in clear lan¬ 
guage exactly what is meant by repentance and faith 
in Christ, and that not in worn formulas and trite 
theological phrases which convey little to the hearer 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 355 

or which have lost pointedness through over-use, but 
in the vernacular of to-day which all men can under¬ 
stand. And this means hardest study and closest 
thought on the part of the minister. 

It would indeed seem to be the easiest thing in the 
world for anyone to tell a thoughtful inquirer how 
to be saved. One has only to say, “Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, ’ ’ and the 
direction is assuredly and abundantly true. But, 
when the inquirer further asks what it is to believe, 
and “What am I to do after I have believed?” there 
is certainly room and necessity for the most precise 
and particular statement, and it is here where most 
spiritual directors are too general and hazy. They 
have taken it for granted too easily that everyone 
knows the requirements of Christianity, and that 
line-by-line instruction is not required at this late 
day. And perhaps, too, they have carelessly as¬ 
sumed that they themselves understood fairly well 
what is definitely meant by the Christian life. But 
even in this twentieth century prominent theologians 
are debating strenuously the question, “What is 
Christianity?” and there is the widest diversity of 
reply. It certainly is no easy task to separate the 
Christianity of Christ from that of the schools—to 
discover the few essential principles and sift them 
out from the surrounding accretion of theology and 
tradition. It is doubtful whether many could do this 
offhand. And yet there is a crying demand for clean- 
cut work of this sort. With all the literature that is 
published there are few manuals that can be put into 
the hands of serious and intelligent men which will 
guide them by sure and graduated steps into a clear 
perception of what is required of them as to belief 


356 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


and practice in a religions life. Many are convinced 
too that the preaching of to-day is too scattering. 
The sermons of a year do not develop on any consecu¬ 
tive plan, and, indeed, have little relationship at all. 
There is a perceptible demand that, as in some great 
argument, or as in the chapters of an unfolding book, 
Christian truth shall be proclaimed from the pulpit. 

It is interesting to note the general trend of the 
themes preached at a successful revival in Taianfu, 
Shantung Province, China. The great emphasis in 
the preaching was laid on the following: 

God—his power, love, mercy, pity, compassion, 
hatred of sin; Jesus Christ—his coming, proving the 
matchless love of God, and his own love, in being 
willing to endure the insults and scorn of the world 
and the agony of Gethsemane and the cross, to re¬ 
deem us from our sins; Jesus—‘ 4 The Friend of sin¬ 
ners”; the Holy Spirit—his work in convicting of 
sin, leading to repentance, and renewing the nature 
distorted and ruined by the fall, enabling us to know 
Christ and the Father, and making real to each 
believer all the preciousness that comes from an 
experimental acquaintance with both in the heart; 
sin—its heinousness in God’s sight, and disastrous 
effect on us, alienating us from God and corrupting 
the nature, and, if persisted in, entailing eternal 
punishment, but if repented and forsaken, forgiven 
and blotted out. The Chinese were urged to seek 
definitely for the witness of the Spirit—the assur¬ 
ance that they had been ‘‘born again.” 

In every theological seminary, it has been sug¬ 
gested, there should be a special chair established, 
with the right professor occupying it, which should 
give definite instruction as to spirit and method in 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 357 

evangelism to the young men about to become 
preachers. Why would not that idea be practical? 
The students are taught how to construct sermons 
and in theory how to deliver them, but most of them 
graduate without much knowledge of the art of per¬ 
suading and winning men and getting them to com¬ 
mit themselves to Christ. They do not know how to 
address themselves to the wills of men so as to 
induce conviction and action. One would think that 
this was of prime importance in those whose chief 
business it is to be to get men into the kingdom. Our 
chief criticism of the theological seminary, as we 
knew it in our student days, was that it taught about 
everything else except how to preach. It is true that 
there was purely theoretic book-instruction in homi¬ 
letics. But, except for a trial sermon or two before 
the student body, there was no instruction in the 
practice of preaching itself. The student had to 
learn this for himself after graduation, much as 
most boys learn to swim by either falling into deep 
water or being pitched over. And yet preaching was 
to be their life business. They graduated with a con¬ 
siderable knowledge of Greek, Hebrew, systematic 
theology, and exegesis, but their knowledge was too 
scholastic. They felt themselves practically con¬ 
fused and helpless when it came to giving specific 
directions to inquirers. 

Again: many pastors experience a practical diffi¬ 
culty—that of preparing a suitable sermon or 
thoughtful exposition and exhortation for each night 
of a protracted revival season, besides thinking out 
the two regular sermons for Sunday, and giving 
proper attention to the number of individual inquir¬ 
ers seeking direction and aid religiously. No man 


358 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


can do all these things long and do them well without 
an overstrain, particularly at a time when the sym¬ 
pathies and emotions are kept at a high tension for 
a considerable period. The drain on the vitality is 
too great. 

During each summer season, as occasion may 
admit, we think it would be advisable for every pas¬ 
tor to have the coming winter’s special services in 
mind. Let him fix upon a series of brief evangelical 
discourses, connecting and cumulating, with a good 
selection of illustrations and verifiable incidents, and 
outline them well on paper, doing beforehand most 
of the work necessary on them for full presentation, 
so that with comparatively little more labor he can 
have them ready for delivery. It would be well if 
this plan could also include the discourses for the 
Sabbath. With such a definite and complete prepara¬ 
tion, when the extra services are begun, the pastor 
can find time for much personal visitation and con¬ 
versation with the seriously disposed whom he may 
win to surrender to Christ. He will inevitably need, 
if he is to throw himself into such earnest efforts 
night after night, some opportunity for rest during 
the day, and this plan will afford it. He will not be 
bound, of course, to follow his previous schedules 
slavishly, but we think he will find his sermons more 
adequate than if he hastily selected this theme or 
that in the midst of the meetings, and when tired out 
and unable to give them sufficient reflection. His 
prepared thought will doubtless have to have new 
life and power put into it, but the spirit of the hour 
and his own intensified feelings may be depended 
upon to supply any such need. 

Many most perplexing questions gather around 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 359 

the problem of ideals, means, and methods in evan¬ 
gelism to make it most successful, and to have it 
express most of the spirit of Christ. Thus a most 
serious inquiry, facing every preacher, relates to the 
kind of a message the pulpit shall present. It is 
difficult to answer the question whether, as compared 
with previous eras, church attendance, in England 
and America, has in reality decreased. It is ad¬ 
mitted that fewer people attend both morning and 
evening services. Men are more conspicuous in their 
seeming neglect than women, though the latter 
appear attracted, in increasing numbers, toward the 
ornate services of ritualistic churches. 

But what the Australian Christian World has to 
say about the attitude of church members toward 
the preacher is incisive. It goes to the very heart 
of the subject, and should awaken serious reflection. 
Men flippantly criticize the preaching as being too 
wordy, too little interesting, too far removed from 
the common concerns of men, not abreast of the 
times. The writer in the antipodes thinks that the 
laymen need to clear their minds of cant. Do they 
really and honestly expect their minister to deliver 
his Master’s message, or do they want him to lec¬ 
ture on any and every kind of subject that is likely 
to be of popular interest? Do they say so much 
about “a full house” and “a big plate collection” 
that the preacher is constantly tempted to use short 
and easy methods for filling up the pews? Are not 
most ministers conscious, most of the time, of this 
pressure? We think it is so in America, however 
it may be in Australia. The side of the financial sup¬ 
port of the church is pushed too prominently to the 
front. We expect men to crowd into our churches, 


360 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


and not only this, but to pay generously for their 
own evangelization. 

If earnest men and women in all the churches were 
to fix their minds on quality rather than quantity, 
do their utmost to support godly ministers by encour¬ 
aging them to think more of fidelity to Christ and to 
the needs of men than of the immediate results of 
preaching, and determine to support the work gener¬ 
ously themselves, we believe there would be a better 
condition of affairs. Perhaps the fault is with 
church members themselves rather than with the 
outside public. Out of their own soul-neglect, the 
dropping out of family religion, their worldly ambi¬ 
tions and aims, the preference for mechanical rem¬ 
edies over a vital piety, has come much of the popular 
indifference to the Church and its services. And we 
believe the Australian writer is right when he says: 
“It can be removed only by a return to greater sim¬ 
plicity of life, and to a more constant seeking first 
of the kingdom of God and his righteousness; when 
the Church of Christ becomes more to us, it will 
become more to others around us; when we devote 
to it our best thought and prayer and gifts, and 
when we live for it as Christ died for it and now 
lives for it, then, and not till then, can we hope to 
see it a real power in the state.’’ 

We are convinced that this is the fact. Unevan¬ 
gelized people are not such superficial amusement- 
lovers as we think. Underneath there is the hunger 
for satisfying truth. They want food and not chaff. 
In the long run they will respect earnest concern for 
their souls far more than any frantic efforts to cater 
to their supposed morbid craving for continual sen¬ 
sationalism. 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 


361 


The embodiment of a false and misleading the¬ 
ology in the appeals made to the unconverted may 
work an infinite amount of mischief. While salva¬ 
tion is free, and is offered on the condition of faith 
alone, we must never forget, at our peril, the whole¬ 
some words of Saint James: 44 Even so, faith, if it 
hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man 
may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show 
me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee 
my faith by my works. Ye see then how that by 
works a man is justified, and not by faith only.” 
Luther, completely enamored of Paul’s theology, 
failed to appreciate the theology of James—its neces¬ 
sary complement, the other hemisphere of full- 
rounded Bible truth—and declared that James’s 
Epistle was one of straw. But Paul and James do 
not contradict each other, and we need the emphasis 
that each places, the one on faith, the other on the 
practical evidence, in the renewed and actively good 
life, of a true as against a merely formal and theo¬ 
retical faith. No heresy can be much worse than 
that of the Antinomians, who contended that, under 
the gospel dispensation, the obligations of the moral 
law were not still imposed on Christians. 

The old dispute concerning faith and works reap¬ 
pears periodically. It was a standing matter of con¬ 
troversy between Toplady and Wesley. Wesley’s 
strong, practical instincts naturally led him to appre¬ 
ciate to the full James’s common-sense admonitions. 
The softened echo of some very bitter theological 
disputes is found in that line of Toplady’s “Bock of 
Ages,” 44 Nothing in my hand I bring.” 

To-day, we judge, there is still need of very care¬ 
ful definition. No doctrine or practice of 4 4 the 


362 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


higher life” which fails to make due account of the 
fundamental necessity of righteousness and benefi¬ 
cence, and which would unconsciously substitute an 
ecstasy for a morality, and an emotionalism for a 
service, can stand either the Christ test or the test 
of reason and experiment. Both the Church and 
the world must repudiate it as an indication of 
unhealthy feverishness rather than health. People 
need to beware of loose conceptions in religion. 
We sing: 

“Free from the law, O happy condition, 

Jesus hath died, and there is remission.” 

But exactly what do we mean by that? If its 
intent is that we are no longer under the threaten- 
ings of Sinai, unalleviated by the blessed gracious¬ 
ness of the Mount of Beatitudes; if it is meant that 
the burdensome exactions of the ceremonial law are 
no longer loaded upon us—then we have a right to 
sing , 6 ‘ Free from the law . 9 9 But we must constantly 
and emphatically remind ourselves that the moral 
law is of eternal obligation upon us—that Jesus 
confirmed Moses, and even interpreted his laws with 
deeper and wider significance—that the gospel did 
not abrogate the Ten Commandments, but filled them 
full of a diviner scope and application. This neces¬ 
sary reminder will 

. frae monie a blunder free us, 

And foolish notion. 

Again we sing—what has often been wrongfully 
interpreted to our discredit by “liberal” theo¬ 
logians— 

“Nothing, either great or small, 

Remains for me to do; 

Jesu3 died and paid it all, 

Yes, all the debt I owe!” 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 363 

As applied to the terms of salvation—as meant for 
the penitent—this theology is Pauline and biblical. 
We cannot win or buy onr salvation. But as a pro¬ 
gram of life for the Christian, as defining his atti¬ 
tude toward duty and service, nothing could be more 
extravagant and false. Everything in the way of 
daily obligation and loving helpfulness remains for 
him to do. 

The subject of right indoctrination in revivals 
needs another illustration. In a rather famous 
debate in a certain preachers’ meeting, where the 
subject of evangelism was up for discussion, we 
once heard a most prominent clergyman say that 
what was wanted to-day was a return to the old-time 
preaching of 4 ‘ hell-fire and brimstone. ” We thought 
at the time, and still believe, -that if that is the best 
thing that can be said to give light on the subject, 
the situation is indeed hopeless. And every preacher 
knew it. He was in no danger of following the 
advice, for he could foresee with what pitying smiles 
such kind of sermons would be received by any pres¬ 
ent-day audience of intelligence. He and they might 
cheerfully admit that such preaching was at one 
time effective and was powerful in turning many 
into the paths of life. And they might further con¬ 
cede that here and there may be found communi¬ 
ties where it would still be called for, and would 
prove very efficient as an instrument of conversion. 
But in the majority of our churches thought and 
conviction have moved so far away from such pres¬ 
entations that to attempt to revive them would 
be simply to invite ridicule. It is a situation, and not 
a theory, that we face; and if anyone thinks that this 
existing condition of the public mind must be per- 


364 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


sistently attacked and shown to be erroneous, we 
simply believe that he will have his labor for his 
pains. The world of religious thinking cannot be 
rolled back a century by any such sennonic crow¬ 
bars. 

What, then, has happened? Have Christians and 
unconverted people alike repudiated the solemn 
and awful language of Jesus when he warns of the 
doom of the incorrigible and finally impenitent? 
No; but they have gone beneath the surface of his 
words. They have insisted on interpreting them 
in terms of the spirit. They have found their deep 
and abiding moral import. They contend that these 
tremendous ethical and spiritual significances for 
the soul are the very truths which Jesus intended 
to convey by his startling figures of speech, and 
that his hearers did not misapprehend him. He 
spoke in metaphors, as an Oriental to Orientals, 
and the underlying truth, missed by a cold, matter- 
of-fact Western intellect that literalizes everything, 
was clearly understood by them. This age feels 
that it is not getting away from the truth of Christ, 
but much nearer to it, when it tries to translate these 
images of fire and torture into rational conceptions 
of the terrible damage wrought by sin in the soul, 
and the certain retributions which, as a consequence 
of wrongdoing—put into the nature of things by 
God, and therefore divine—will certainly follow 
iniquity here and hereafter. 

And of this kind of preaching, in this somewhat 
easy-going age, it is our conviction that we need 
very much more. If the appalling results of an 
evil life on character for time and eternity are lov¬ 
ingly and faithfully presented, we believe that the 


365 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 

preacher will be listened to with respect and rev¬ 
erence, and that there will be an awakening of 
many consciences which are slumbering in a false 
sense of security because a flaming hell of fire and 
brimstone is put aside as a myth, while the very 
Day of Judgment is not only coming, but is already 
upon them. 

John Wesley, in his day, stirred men’s souls pro¬ 
foundly by earnestly exhorting them to 4 4 flee from 
the wrath to come.” Such pleading is as much in 
place now as then. But, in view of our modern 
conception of the present and immediate retribu¬ 
tive consequences of sin, incurred instantaneously 
with the sin itself, and running too into the future, 
is it not well to warn men to flee from the wrath 
that now is, from the penalties visited instantly 
upon all sin and not postponed for any time to come I 
Should not both conceptions, both great truths— 
after all but one truth, for future penalty is only a 
part of the present penalty continuous through 
time into eternity—be presented faithfully and 
solemnly by all preachers everywhere? 

Pastors who resort to questionable methods of 
drawing a crowd to a “revival,” or who employ 
“religious recitationists ” (such a placard was re¬ 
cently displayed in New York), might well recon¬ 
sider their plans when paragraph-writers in the 
secular papers note the incongruity and criticize the 
profanations. To put up boys to spout offhand 
on religion is a performance about as offensive to 
good taste and a right religious sentiment as the 
poorest of “Midway” shows. It smacks of the 
dime vaudeville. Mature {men of thought would 
not consent to such a test. What can be expected 


366 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


of an immature boy who is asked to speak extem¬ 
poraneously on a subject given him by the audience? 
Nothing else than a volubility without sense or sig¬ 
nificance, a mechanical operation of the mouth in 
which the brain takes no part. If such abnormal 
youngsters, exploited for gain by their “ man¬ 
agers,’ * ever had any piety, they would be sure to 
lose it by being publicly put up before curious 
crowds as “infant phenoms.” Religion is too sen¬ 
sitive a plant to stand any such handling as that. 
In the name of the Society for the Protection of 
Children, as well as in the name of propriety and 
decency, these exhibitions ought to be discontinued. 
If we are reduced as low as that in order to have 
a revival, for our part we care little to see one 
arranged for. It would be better not to try at all 
than to try in ways which must deeply offend the 
religious instincts of all normally constituted 
Christians. The secular press, as we have stated, 
sees plainly the execrable judgment involved in the 
whole proceeding. One such editor says: “Sensa¬ 
tionalism in religion is always distasteful to thought¬ 
ful men and women. For this reason the ‘boy 
preachers’ and ‘infant prodigies’ of the pulpit sel¬ 
dom appeal to conservative minds. The desire to 
be amused as well as enlightened is so common 
among the masses that it offers justification to 
some for effervescence in the pulpit. At a great 
religious meeting at Ocean Grove, recently, a boy 
preacher from Manchester, England, announced as 
‘Jack Cook,’ was scheduled to speak, and the vast 
congregation was invited to choose a text from 
which he might expound. The text was given, and 
he spoke extemporaneously, it is said, for three- 


IDEALS AND METHODS IN EVANGELISM 367 

quarters of an hour to a ‘bewildered audience.’ 
The utterances of the pulpit should always be 
thoughtful and well considered. The profound 
truths of the gospel should have behind their expo¬ 
sition the weight of years and the strength of deep 
thought and consecrated study. Sensational utter¬ 
ances may sway an impulsive and eager crowd, hut 
the best mission of the Church is to reach those 
clear-minded, conscientious, and earnest seekers 
after truth who are asking for a perfect demon¬ 
stration of its abiding place. ’ ’ 

A speaker at a convention of the Associated 
Advertising Clubs of America told about a certain 
minister in Chicago who used a brass band to in¬ 
crease the attendance at his church. He got the 
people into the church, but when he began to speak 
they stampeded, he said, and broke for the door. 
The speaker observed: “The trouble was that as 
a preacher he failed to make good; he could not 
deliver the goods he had advertised. A good band 
and a poor preacher may attract a crowd, but they 
cannot hold it if the preacher insists on taking a 
place on the program.’’ This remark is very sug¬ 
gestive. It is possible, by means of glaring pla¬ 
cards and newspaper notices, to beguile an audi¬ 
ence to church to listen to some sensationally 
phrased topic; but if the people get nothing when 
they come, they are not liable to be taken in by such 
chaff very frequently. Good preaching is its own 
best advertisement. 

Occasionally we meet, in organs of liberal 
churches, semi-jocose references to certain churches 
where the attendance has fallen off, the collections 
or pew rents decreased, and whose officials, con- 


368 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


sequently, are moved to say, 4 ‘Go to now, let us 
get up a revival. ” It would certainly be bad enough 
if any church were actuated by merely prudential 
considerations, affecting the popularity or the sup¬ 
port of the church, in beginning evangelistic serv¬ 
ices. This is a world of wonderfully mixed 
motives, and sometimes the unadulterated quality 
of their motives is scarcely known even by good 
men. We will not say, therefore, that there never 
has been a church w'hick started revivalistic serv¬ 
ices simply for the sake of the crowd and the 
44 baskets.” But we will say that we have never 
known of such an instance where we even were com¬ 
pelled strongly to suspect it. We think the suspicion 
of it in others is the result of poetic imagination; 
but, all the same, we are thankful for the implied 
warning, for such a revival in an evangelical church 
would be even worse than no revivals at all in the 
non-evangelical churches. 


CHAPTER XIII 

The Personal Element in Evangelism 

A perennial subject of debate in the churches is 
that of the advisability of the employment of evan¬ 
gelists for special services. We are glad to bear 
testimony to the consecration, invaluable aid, and 
large success of the great majority of these devoted 
men. What we write below applies only to the 
exceptional few whose influence we regret. 

In his entertaining volume on “New France and 
New England” John Fiske tells of a certain evan¬ 
gelist who preached during the “Great Awakening” 
in the middle of the eighteenth century in New Eng¬ 
land. His name was James Davenport, and “his 
ill-balanced enthusiasm led him to very strange 
lengths. . . . He was constitutionally intemperate 
in speech, eccentric in action, and inspired by that 
peculiar self-conceit which is one of the marks of 
mental derangement. If he came to a town where 
little excitement was manifested on the subject of 
religion, he would revile the ministers of the town, 
accusing them of being unconverted, blind leaders 
of the blind, and he warned the people that by lis¬ 
tening to such preaching they were imperiling their 
souls. At Boston he grew so abusive that the min¬ 
isters held a conference and decided that they would 
not allow him the use of their pulpits. Nothing 
daunted, however, this Boanerges hurled forth his 
thunderbolts on such places as Copp’s Hill and 
Boston Common, where he spoke his mind with great 

369 


370 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


freedom to thousands of listeners. For example, 
in one of his prayers, he said, ‘Good Lord, I will 
not mince matters with thee, for thou knowest that 
I know that most of the ministers of Boston and 
of the country are unconverted, and are leading 
their people blindfold to hell.’ For these words 
Davenport was indicted for slander, but was 
acquitted on the ground of insanity.” 

It may be that there was some truth in his de¬ 
famatory remarks, but we can hardly believe that, 
even in a time of religious decadence, things were 
quite as bad as to call for such violent and whole¬ 
sale denunciation. Whatever should have been said, 
ought to have been said in different spirit and words. 
Davenport may not have had many successors, but 
we have had experience with one or two men, at 
least, of his make-up and methods. And, on one 
occasion, we were present in a ministers’ meeting 
when such a ranter was brought before it, and asked 
to prove his Specifications as to the charge of lazi¬ 
ness and indifference to revivals, which he had been 
rather recklessly making against the preachers of 
the city in public addresses. His “explanations” 
were not very explanatory and he was in a rather 
awkward situation. It may he that ministers fre¬ 
quently need stirring up; they must have exhorta¬ 
tion to zeal just as other people. But it takes the 
right kind of man to do it, and it must be done in a 
way that will effect its desired end, and not pro¬ 
voke to excusable wrath by exaggeration, unchari¬ 
tableness, and libelous representation. 

There are those whose contention as to ideals and 
methods is that we must resuscitate, with more 
energy than ever, the old methods from which we 


THE PERSONAL ELEMENT IN EVANGELISM 371 

have measurably departed, and pour fresh life into 
them. Through these methods, they say, the great 
victories of the past were won, and there is no valid 
reason for thinking that they would not be as effect¬ 
ive now as formerly. 

Others assert that there must be a new departure; 
that the old methods of ‘ 4 revival work” and forms 
of appeal are outworn and ineffective; that there 
must be new ways of presenting the gospel truth 
to men—new tactics in spiritual warfare. Yet while 
the method may be new, it will still be only an im¬ 
proved plan, adapted to the present age, of pre¬ 
senting and urging the unchangeable truth of Christ. 
As a recent writer puts it: 4 ‘The new evangelism 
will not be narrowed to a mere moral reformation, 
nor confined within the bounds of any human sys¬ 
tem of theology. It will not bring a new gospel, 
because it cannot have a new Christ. Jesus and his 
glad tidings of blood atonement will be the same 
yesterday, to-day, and forever. We need a new 
evangelism; but to be effective it must be new only 
in the sense of being drawn fresh from the fountain¬ 
head. We need a new day, but not a new sun; a 
new evangelism, but not a new evangel.” 

We suspect there is truth in both these positions, 
and that, whatever new methods may be evolved 
in the future, they will perpetuate in themselves 
the best features of the old. Some are saying that 
we need to cultivate more zeal, and there can be 
little doubt of that. Others warn us that this is 
preeminently a reflective and inquiring age, testing 
everything by rational processes, and our zeal must 
be kept from becoming a barren enthusiasm by 
having large admixtures of sober, solid, careful 


372 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


teaching and explanation. There can be no deny¬ 
ing that. We cannot with impunity forget and 
ignore the fact that we are living in a scientific era, 
and that the last fifty years or more have formed 
an intellectual habit which must surely be reckoned 
with in our evangelistic efforts. They are right 
who tell us that emotion is indispensable in revivals. 
A frigid, coldly reasoned-out spiritual process 
could not escape formality and deadness. The feel¬ 
ings must have their legitimate place and function 
and cannot be repressed without mutilation of the 
best in men. But, particularly in our day, reason 
and conscience must receive equal honor and atten¬ 
tion with the feelings in seeking to win men. 

We are assured by some that the day of the spe¬ 
cific and periodical revival has past, and that we 
must depend in the future upon the quiet, regular, 
constant, and progressive methods of Christian 
culture. Again we suspect that neither method will 
exclude the other, and that each will give good 
account of its respective excellence. After an un¬ 
due or too exclusive dependence upon the periodi¬ 
cal revival for the ingathering of converts, it is, 
doubtless, well that specific investigation is now 
being concentrated upon the cultural method. Its 
special and peculiar adaptation to children and 
youth is being clearly recognized, and there are 
many others, adults, of calm, thoughtful, and fine 
temperaments and moral dispositions, for whom it 
is preeminently indicated. 

More and more the fundamental and evident fact 
is being acted upon—that all men are not of one 
temperament, and that different methods must be 
suited to the emotional, scholastic, and practical 


THE PERSONAL ELEMENT IN EVANGELISM 373 

types of humanity: to women, to collegians, to mat¬ 
ter-of-fact business men, and many others. The 
studies of Christian psychologists along this line 
are proving very suggestive and serviceable. 
People of culture and true refinement draw back, 
wounded and insulted, when the sacredest precincts 
of their personality are thus rudely invaded. For 
some strong and brawny personality to seek to over¬ 
rule and dominate some delicate, retiring lady or 
gentleman, in a matter as internal and holy as the 
life of the spirit, is as reprehensible as it is unwar¬ 
rantable. Hearts are not to be worn on the sleeve 
for daws to peck at. When it is claimed that meth¬ 
ods which lay themselves open to obvious objection 
and criticism have been instrumental in saving 
souls, the pertinent inquiry still remains, “How 
many other souls of rarer mold have they repulsed 
and alienated V 9 The methods must surely carry 
the responsibility of the latter as well as the credit 
of the former. 

Innumerable sudden conversions in the past make 
it unnecessary to speak a single word in defense of 
the possibility of immediate and instant conversions. 
For many temperaments this is the natural opera¬ 
tion, and yet it probably is the case that in many 
instances, though not evidently in all, there was an 
anterior process of reflection and preparation. The 
conversion was a culmination. Besides, the presence 
of God in the general courses of life must not be 
denied. God is in all existence. He can be found 
in the trivial round as well as in the crisis—in ordi¬ 
nary and gradual as well as in extraordinary and 
sudden ways; and sudden regenerations must still 
make their moral connections with everyday living 


374 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


—relate themselves with the practical and usual 
trend. Otherwise the revival, and with it religion, 
comes under suspicion of being artificial and, so, 
questionable. Thoughtful people will have a feel¬ 
ing that it has been “worked up”; that it savors 
more of the artifices of men than of the stirrings of 
the Divine Spirit. Let the Church cultivate both 
forms of revival work—the periodical “special 
effort,” fervent, with an intensity which is still 
rational, and the method by continuous culture 
which shall escape the possible danger of becoming 
merely formal and intellectual by constantly seek¬ 
ing a right spiritual ardor. But particularly in 
regard to the religious training of children may the 
culture method be found most successful. A very 
intelligent gentleman, the superintendent of schools 
in his city, recently expressed to us a desire that we 
think others besides himself may have felt. He thinks 
there ought to be a closer cooperation between pas¬ 
tors, Sunday school teachers, and parents in a sys¬ 
tematic training of children religiously for future 
church membership. He holds that there ought to 
be manuals prepared that could be put into the 
hands of such parents as are willing to work together 
with others for the good of their children’s souls, 
giving them specific directions particularly as to how 
to impart instruction from the Bible. We regard 
the suggestion as an excellent one, and wish we 
might see such handbooks. Many parents are will¬ 
ing to do more than is being done for the religious 
culture of the children in the home, but they feel 
something of an incapacity—they do not know how 
to go about it. Why should they have books tell¬ 
ing them how to cook, and not books showing them 


THE PERSONAL ELEMENT IN EVANGELISM 375 

how to train immortal minds for character? Many 
young ministers are doing splendid work in this 
field of child-training. Older pastors who feel that 
they can preach to adults but cannot teach children 
through a progressive course, owing to a lack of 
instinct for the work and a want of pedagogical 
training, ought, even late in life, to try to make 
good the deficiency and redeem the past mistake 
and neglect. 

No movement of our modem times hears more 
promise in it than the widespread interest in the 
moral and spiritual training and education of child¬ 
hood. It means incalculably much for the boys and 
girls themselves, and also for the home, society, 
the Church, the nation, and the world. The Chris¬ 
tianity of the future is to be made more efficient 
and glorious because of such a reasonable and 
obligatory program of Christian work. It is incom¬ 
prehensible that the thought of the Church should 
have come so tardily to the apprehension of this 
most obvious truth: that the best way of getting 
people committed to the Christian life and actively 
interested in church activities; the best way of sav¬ 
ing them from vice, indifference to religion, demor¬ 
alized characters, and of turning them into paths 
of morality, religion, and righteous conduct, is to 
begin effort with them in their earliest youth. 

Because, for so long a period, the eyes of Chris¬ 
tians were so strangely closed to this outstanding 
truth, and because of the consequent comparative 
neglect of child-life, irreparable harm has resulted. 
Thousands have lived and died, without any ex¬ 
perience of religion whatever, who might have been 
eminent Christians, exerting a saving influence on 


176 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


society. In countless cases, too, these neglected 
ones have drifted into open immoralities, and have 
proved a curse to themselves and to the world when 
they might have been a blessing. 

But in this day the folly and sinfulness of the 
former carelessness and neglectfulness of the grow¬ 
ing generation is quite universally recognized, and 
the churches are endeavoring to atone for their 
grievous sins of omission. There is a general rally¬ 
ing cry of “The Church for the children and the 
children for the Church. ” It is as Dr. Bishell, in 
his thought-provoking volume, 4 4 The Child as God’s 
Child ,’ 9 says in his concluding paragraph: 44 So to 
train a human being from infancy to maturity as 
that he will never fall into the evils of an unbridled 
appetite; that he will lead a clean, pure, helpful 
life; that he will find in the service of God and the 
service of his fellow man his chief joy; that he will 
gladly take his place by the side of Christ in the 
saving of other human beings—this is worth 
while.” 

Emphasis too is being laid upon the duty of 
parents in the proper advice and guidance of their 
children, and pulpit and press are urging the abso¬ 
lute necessity of the conscientious discharge of 
parental responsibilities, too often willfully shirked 
or negligently allowed to go by default. The con¬ 
sequence of such weakness is deplorable. One 
preacher puts the situation in words none too plain: 
4 4 It is our awful shame that children grow up to 
do as they please, when it is our plain duty to 
command them to keep the way of the Lord. They 
may tread on our toes now, but ere long they will 
trample on our hearts. It is sad to see hosts of 


THE PERSONAL ELEMENT IN EVANGELISM 377 

children growing np for the barest treadmill of 
existence, to hang like a millstone upon the com¬ 
munity, or for the penitentiary or the death-chair, 
all because parents do not do their duty. Has it 
ever occurred to you that many a father hangs his 
own son because he does not keep him off the gal¬ 
lows f ’ ’ 

Another authority, Ennis Richmond, in ‘ ‘ The 
Mind of a Child,’’ writes: “If every child were 
taught to be temperate, drunkenness and gluttony 
would cease; if every child were taught to be rever¬ 
ent, blasphemy would cease; if every child were 
taught to be self-controlled, evil passions of all kinds 
would be held in check. . . . There is no shirking 
it; as we train our children, so are we responsible 
for the welfare of the world of the future; we can¬ 
not leave them alone, they cannot stand still, they 
must go backward or forward, and on us, on us 
alone, depends the result.” 

And not only in the matter of moral training are 
the parents being exhorted to greater faithfulness, 
but also in that of a definite guidance of their chil¬ 
dren into a religious confession and life. If the 
children of Christians are not Christians, there is 
generally a serious fault somewhere. It may be 
contended, truthfully enough, that, even after all 
patient endeavor on the part of fathers and mothers, 
the young people will sometimes persistently re¬ 
fuse to take upon themselves the yoke of Christ. 
Nevertheless, these are the exceptions, and the 
parents cannot accuse themselves—they have deliv¬ 
ered their own souls. Dr. A. H. McKinney, super¬ 
intendent of the New York State Sunday School 
Association, and author of “The Child for Christ,” 


378 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


pertinently argues the case with the parent in such 
pointed questionings as these: 44 The adult needs 
Christ, to be sure. Does not the child? You wish 
your child to be good. Who can give him such 
help to be good as Christ can? You wish your child 
to keep out of temptation. Who can deliver him 
as Christ can? You wish your child to grow in the 
spiritual life. Who can help him in this growth 
as Christ can? What is it that Christ does for the 
adult who looks to him in faith? That and more 
Christ can and will do for the believing child ? ’’ 
The children ought to be coming in larger num¬ 
bers out of our Sunday schools into our church 
membership. There is a vast improvement in this 
regard over what has obtained in the past, but we 
are still a long distance from the ideal. Decision 
Day is an excellent idea that has borne good fruit. 
Wisely, patiently, tactfully, lovingly, prayerfully, 
there should be cooperation between the parents, the 
pastor, the superintendent, and the Sunday school 
teacher to lead the boys and girls to commit them¬ 
selves intelligently and decisively to the Christian 
life, and to enroll themselves as members of Christ’s 
working Church on earth. Dr. C. V. Anthony, 
author of 44 The Children’s Covenant,” remarks 
significantly: 44 The way from the Sunday school to 
the Church should be well traveled. We often hear 
the Sunday school spoken of as the nursery of the 
Church. If such it is, the replanting should take 
place as early as safety will admit. The Sunday 
school is a part of the Church, and under the super¬ 
vision of the Church it is intended to build up the 
Church. If parents send their children to the Sun¬ 
day school, they ought to understand that, as a 


THE PERSONAL ELEMENT IN EVANGELISM 379 

natural consequence, the children will be gathered 
into the Church.” 

What kind of Christians may we expect when 
such a policy becomes universally operative in our 
churches! Will we not see a stronger, more intel¬ 
ligent, less inconsistent membership than the world 
has ever seen? Dr. Francis E. Clark, founder of 
the Christian Endeavor Society, has voiced the con¬ 
victions of thousands upon the need of gathering 
the lads and lasses of our Sunday schools into the 
fold of the church membership. He says: “Here 
among the children and youth is the choicest garden 
spot in all the Lord’s domain. Why spend all the 
time in reclaiming the desert when the soil of youth 
will yield thirtyfold, sixtyfold, a hundredfold? 
Shall we spend all our time digging in the scoriae of 
the burnt-out emotions of the aged or the middle 
aged, and forget the virgin gold mine of youthful 
love and enthusiasm which will so richly reward our 
love? It is possible and natural for children to be 
converted at their mother’s knee, and never know 
the time when they did not love the Saviour. And 
this should not be something rare, occasional, re¬ 
markable ; a phenomenon, a thing to excite remark, 
like a comet or a meteor. It should be the usual, 
expected thing that children of religious parents 
should choose to live for the Saviour as early as 
they are able to make any choice, and should be 
received into the Church and receive its nurtur¬ 
ing, fostering care.” 

Frequently pastors and adult members of the 
Church do not realize the necessity of very plain 
and simple explanations to the boy or girl entering 
the Christian life. We have known those, in the 


380 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


past, who had been powerfully impressed in an old- 
fashioned revival where feeling was intense. Their 
emotions were wonderfully wrought upon, and for 
a time they lived in an exalted mood. But they could 
not stay forever thus on the Mount of Ecstasy, 
and the reaction was inevitable. When the reaction 
came, for lack of some definite and kindly instruc¬ 
tion as to just what was involved for them in living 
a Christian life, they were swept backward into a 
condition of unimpressible indifference and skepti¬ 
cism. They imagined their eyes had been opened 
at last, and that they now saw that religion was only 
a thing of fervor, excitement, and overstrung 
nerves. From this cynical position some did not 
come for years. 

But, if some sensible, pious, practical person could 
have had a quiet talk with them, explaining the 
Christian duties of trust, Scripture reading, prayer, 
and church attendance, and the obligations in home 
and school life of obedience, courtesy, honesty, 
truthfulness, honor, purity, nobility, chivalry, love; 
if some one could only have told them what it was 
to be a Christian, in regard to the simplicity which 
is in Christ, and the everyday moral obligations, 
they would have been saved a painful experience 
which gave life a wrench in an unnecessary fall from 
grace. 

The Rev. Dr. H. M. Curtis has told how he led a 
class of boys and girls through a course of familiar 
talks on 4 ‘ What Is It to Be a Christian ?” The 
membership of the class was purely voluntary. At 
first there was some reticence, but, after a little, the 
most delightful companionship and confidence on 
the part of the young people who brought all sorts 


THE PERSONAL ELEMENT IN EVANGELISM 381 

of questions for his solution. There was no undue 
pressure to induce them to join the Church. Never¬ 
theless, many came to ask the privilege. 

Dr. Curtis prepared some ten different printed 
leaflets, with about fifteen questions on each, for the 
guidance of the thought of these youthful inquirers. 
One paper would relate to temptation, sin, and pun¬ 
ishment; another to Christ, forgiveness, sustaining 
grace, atonement, salvation; another to confessing 
Christ; another to growth in the Christian life; 
another to the life of Christian service; another to 
faith and prayer; another to church membership; 
and another to the sacraments. All of our churches 
have lost immensely for lack of just such plain, 
systematic instruction. The questions in these 
pamphlets, it seems to us, were most simply and 
yet most significantly framed, and covered the 
great essentials of biblical teaching and Christian 
practice. We commend them as models for all pas¬ 
tors. Here are two sample series of questions on 
“About Being a Christian” and “About a Life of 
Service ’ ’: 

“What is a Christian! Where were the disciples 
first called Christians ! Why ought we to be Chris¬ 
tians! What is the first step in becoming a Chris¬ 
tian! What is the next thing to do! What must 
we give up in order to become a Christian! If we 
are Christians and fall into sin, what should we 
do! Is the Christian life a happy or a sorrowful 
one! Do we become Christians at once or as the 
result of growth! How may we grow in the Chris¬ 
tian life! How can people know that we are Chris¬ 
tians! When is the best time to begin to be a 
Christian! What did Christ say about the children 


382 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


coming to him ? When does the Bible say we ought 
to become Christians ? ’ ’ 

i ‘What kind of a life did Jesus live? What kind 
of a life would Jesus have us live? What will be 
the result if we live such a life? Who did Christ 
say was the greatest among the disciples? What 
are some of the ways in which we can help others? 
How will kind words help others ? What is the best 
message to take to the sick and suffering? Why 
should we give help to the poor and the needy? 
What did Jesus say about the blessedness of giv¬ 
ing? What should we give to the poor and needy 
besides money? What great command did Christ 
give to all his disciples? What, then, should we do 
when we become Christians? What is a missionary? 
How can we all be missionaries ? What will be the 
final reward of those who live such a life of serv¬ 
ice and helping others to know the way of salva¬ 
tion ?” 

There are many strenuous advocates for “insti¬ 
tutional” features in connection with evangelism. 
For several years Dr. Bainsford, of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, conducted evangelistic services 
on the old lines among the masses of New York 
city; but he was led to abandon them as being un¬ 
fruitful of permanent results, and to rely upon a 
combination of evangelism and the institutional 
plans of clubs for boys and girls, athletics, baths, 
mutual improvement societies, savings banks, 
mothers’ meetings, and every other suggestion of 
the sort. The possible developments along this line 
for self-help, social and intellectual culture, recrea¬ 
tion and health, better homes and better finances, 
and the general brightening and heightening of life, 


THE PERSONAL ELEMENT IN EVANGELISM 383 

are practically unlimited. If dependence be placed 
entirely on these 4 ‘ institutions ’’ the religious ele¬ 
ment will be in danger of elimination. But, if the 
whole program be vitalized by an earnest evangel¬ 
ical spirit, we believe it to be the most successful 
plan that can be adopted in conditions similar to 
his. It was the method of Jesus, who not only 
preached but healed; who forgave the palsied man 
his sins and then cured his poor, stricken body. 
It was the plan of John Wesley, who united phil¬ 
anthropic efforts in behalf of orphans and working 
people with all of his revival propaganda. Dr. 
Rainsford also found that work for and among the 
children yielded the largest lasting returns for his 
labor and expenditures. 

Is it wisdom in the Church leaders to fix a mark— 
say of two million or five million to be converted— 
in beginning any evangelistic enterprise? We be¬ 
lieve that the Church ought to work constantly for 
the largest possible ingathering of souls. But who 
shall fix numbers and establish limits? It is the 
Lord who giveth the increase. If a small number 
is named, he may rebuke our unfaith by far exceed¬ 
ing it in the victories of his Spirit over human 
hearts. If a vast number is named—far beyond any 
probability, humanly speaking—there is hopeless¬ 
ness and paralysis from the first on the part of his 
human instruments, and disappointment, reaction, 
and a temptation to inactivity follow failure. Noth¬ 
ing indeed is impossible with the Lord, and it is 
within the operation of his grace that we should, 
at any time, be astounded by the sudden and over¬ 
powering outpouring of his Spirit, and that nations 


384 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


should be born in a day, men being converted by the 
hundreds of thousands. But such a result will not 
be accomplished by our mechanical putting down 
one, or a dozen, or a score of millions for conver¬ 
sion as the measure of our expectations, the top 
notch of our prayers. 

Among our fathers in the ministry there was a 
phrase current to which we have alluded—“draw¬ 
ing the net”—which referred to an invitation to 
the unconverted, after the sermon, to accept Christ. 
Formerly such an exhortation was an invariable rule 
with the minister. He had it in mind during his 
sermon and worked up to it as his climax. When 
he cast his net and drew it in he was grievously 
disappointed if there were no fish inclosed. Many 
an old saint to-day is unable to understand why 
his pastor should preach so earnestly and convinc¬ 
ingly, employing argument and pathos alike to show 
the reasonableness and necessity of the religious 
life, and then close the service and dismiss the 
worshipers without giving anyone a chance to act 
in answer to the appeal. Preachers should awake 
to the incongruity and absurdity of the practice of 
presenting impassioned truths and then giving no 
opportunity for any to take advantage of their 
aroused emotions and pledge themselves at the 
altar. 

It is true that not every sermon will be specifically 
what is called “evangelistic.” Nevertheless, if it 
deal with some fundamental Christian truth which 
men ought to practice in their lives, or some aspect 
of faith and experience, the invitation will not come 
out of place. In fact, whatever the sermon—be it 


THE PERSONAL ELEMENT IN EVANGELISM 385 

even on some reform, or philanthropy, or phase 
of practical morality—a warm plea before the last 
hymn for men to “come forward,’’ to forsake sin 
and worldliness and adhere to Christ, is always in 
order on the Sabbath day or any other day. The 
very fact that he is to make his appeal at the close 
will operate on the preacher’s mind, both in the 
preparation and the delivery of his sermon, to 
keep him near to the truth of Christ and give 
warmth to his feelings. He will be apt, too, to 
choose themes and texts with practical results in 
mind. There must be a caution lest the form of 
invitation lapse into a dry and dull formality. We 
do not say that the net ought always, in all circum¬ 
stances, to be cast. In small congregations the 
pastor may know that every person before him is 
attached to the Church. But ministers who have 
adopted the practice of letting no service go by with¬ 
out “opening the doors of the Church” have been 
surprised at the outcome. There have often been 
responses where they were least expected, and a 
church so growing is strengthened continuously and 
lastingly. 

The ideals and activities of the Federation of the 
Churches of Christ in America, expressed through 
its Council, are making known the growing spirit of 
fraternity and cooperation among the churches. 
We know of no higher purpose that federation could 
propose than a united effort of all the evangelical 
churches in our great cities, looking toward a gen¬ 
eral revival of religion. Unity in aim and spirit 
was included, without doubt, in Christ’s prayer 
“That they all may be one.” Therefore any move- 


386 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


ment that is exhibitive of this spirit, and empha¬ 
sizes it in the world’s sight, ought to be welcomed. 
It must come as a tidal wave out of the great deep 
of God’s spiritual workings, and not as a storm 
wave on the surface. The work of evangelizing a 
great city is so great that it will require combined 
efforts to make any deep impression. No one de¬ 
nomination is equal to the task and it is a work 
that belongs to all. If there are other ways of 
reaching people with the gospel than those com¬ 
monly used, they should be employed. Great munici¬ 
palities like New York and Chicago are such 
battlefields for the essentials of Christianity that 
the evangelical preacher forgets to fight for de¬ 
nominational shibboleths and “just preaches the 
gospel.” 

So much is said in these days to the effect that 
Christian unity will not be brought about by way 
of agreement on any particular doctrinal basis, or by 
way of the adoption of a uniform mode of worship, 
that sincere believers must look to some such plan 
as is proposed in order to promote, or at least ex¬ 
press, the unity of the evangelical denominations. 
Combinations are everywhere in evidence in trade, 
manufactures, and finance. The seeming divisions 
of Christianity are all the more incongruous and 
unpardonable. They are out of joint with the age. 
They are only apparent and superficial. By a 
united effort for evangelism the Christian forces 
would be more firmly fused and welded together. 
It is felt that there must be a religious reckoning 
and a reawakening, a readjustment of methods and 
a new departure in the line of full cooperation. 
In this way every household might be reached with 


THE PERSONAL ELEMENT IN EVANGELISM 387 

the gospel message, and civic conditions would be 
immensely changed for the better. 

Various special plans of revival effort may also 
be mentioned and commended, plans which have 
been in practice most effective. One of the most 
reasonable of religious instincts is the spontaneous 
movement, in expectation and prayer for a revival, 
on the part of pastor and people, whenever a new 
church is completed. This is the note we oftenest 
hear sounded on dedication days. It is intuitively 
felt that the most appropriate object of endeavor, 
on entering the new temple, is the supplementing 
of the formal and ceremonial dedication of the 
church by a dedication through the outpouring of 
the Spirit of God upon the people. Everything is 
auspicious for such a spiritual visitation: the joy and 
gratitude of the congregation over the sacred edi¬ 
fice, completed after much self-sacrifice; the ris¬ 
ing tide of emotion which the dedication day has 
brought; the natural concentration of the thought 
of the community to the God and the Christ for 
whose worship the new and fair church building 
has been erected, and of whom it now stands as a 
fresh reminder; the conviction of the necessity of 
a renewed and larger accession of the Spirit as 
befits a religion whose adoration and service of God 
must be in spirit and in truth. 

Another effort which has been, in many places, 
singularly blessed, is to secure the places of amuse¬ 
ment, which so many of the unevangelized frequent 
and where they feel so much at home, for revival 
services. In most towns, fortunately, the theaters 


388 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


are closed on Sunday. Where they are open the 
possibility of employing them on Sunday for higher 
purposes than the vaudeville or drama is something 
that deserves serious consideration by Christian 
people. Large numbers of alienated and unchurched 
men and women, at home in the theater, might be 
brought under gospel influences there who cannot 
now be induced to attend services at the churches. 
If the Christian people could rent these auditoriums 
on the Sabbath for evangelistic meetings, we believe 
excellent results might be achieved. The cost might 
be considerable, but the 44 cash basis’’ is the very 
lowest and unworthy of followers of Him who came 
to seek and save the lost. 

Over in England they believe that the theater 
service, as conducted there by some of our Wesleyan 
brethren, 44 pays.” Here is a sample testimony of 
one who was reclaimed in such meetings: 44 I thank 
God that I ever came into this theater. I was a 
drunkard and a gambler. One Sunday I did a thing 
that I had never done before—took the money from 
my wife’s pocket and came out of the house to 
drink. I stayed in the 4 pubs’ till they closed at 
half-past two; then, as I strolled up the street, I 
noticed the doors of this theater open, and, neither 
knowing nor caring what was on, I came in. It was 
a lantern service. One slide on the sheet—a picture 
of a gambling scene—made me think of my life as 
I had never thought before; another reminded me 
of the children at home I was neglecting through 
my love of drink; and when the prayer meeting 
came I needed no pressing to stay. That afternoon 
I gave my heart to God. There was a complete 
change in our home, and no mistake! Why, the 


THE PERSONAL ELEMENT IN EVANGELISM 389 

neighbors were actually asking what fresh people 
had moved into our house. But there were no fresh 
people; it was the religion of Jesus Christ that had 
made all the difference. Now my Saviour keeps 
me every day. ’ ’ 

And here is another: “Eh, lads; I was a bad ’un. 
I feel ashamed to tell of my past life, it was so 
black; but, 0, how wonderful the grace of God is 
to save a poor sinner like me. My wife’s been a 
Christian for years, and she’s prayed for me, too; 
but it seemed as if the drink had got too firm hold 
of me. Well, one Sunday—and it was a happy day 
for me—I came into this theater. The subject that 
night was ' The Better Land, ’ and since that time this 
world has been a better land to me, for I took Jesus 
to be my Saviour, and now I am so happy I feel like 
singing all the time.” 

It is not much to be wondered at that Mr. Alan 
Ford, a worker in these meetings, convincingly asks: 
“Does it pay? To attract to a religious service 
week after week hundreds of men and women who 
could not be persuaded to enter a chapel or church 
under any circumstances ? To have the opportunity 
of preaching the gospel to 'the bottom lot’ in the 
place where they feel most at home? To wrest for 
the moment from the enemy one of his outposts and 
attack him with his own guns? To do anything in 
any way, at any time, when such action results in 
the cry of the repentant sinner, 'What must I do to 
be saved?’ and the highest joy the Christian worker 
can know—that of pointing others to Christ?” 

Still another effective method, where the pastor 
is conducting hi$ own meetings, is the employment 


390 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


of a “singing evangelist.’’ Usually there can be 
little objection to the employment of such a helper 
to assist the pastor, and so give some degree of 
novelty that might be legitimate in attracting the 
people. The employment of such a man would ordi¬ 
narily seem justifiable and advisable, provided he 
did not more than occasionally want to preach him¬ 
self, and provided he did not have some trivial col¬ 
lection of sentimental songs to sing, and a book to 
sell, on which he was reaping big profits. Selling 
song books and photographs in the house of the 
Lord may not be quite so bad as the offense which 
called for the whip of cords that Jesus wielded so 
effectually, but it is a breach of sacred etiquette 
that ought to be sternly discouraged. And the 
noblest penitential hymns of the Church, combined 
with the best of the gospel hymns which have borne 
the test of time, ought to be used in place of the 
gushing, ephemeral sort. Curious reflections come 
to one who attempts to join in the singing at our 
present-day evangelistic services in church or on 
camp ground. Ordinarily some rather new book 
of lately published songs is used. We need not take 
time here to say what has been said a hundred times 
as to the quality of the compositions in sentiment, 
words, or musical setting. Perhaps the strictures 
have, at times, been too severe, but, in general, they 
have been deserved. When, for preaching serv¬ 
ices, any selection of hymns appropriate to the sub¬ 
ject is desired, it simply cannot be made. Some¬ 
times there are not a half-dozen well-known hymns 
in these collections. The choir can sing the newest 
ditties, and most of the young people; but those in 
middle life, or beyond, sometimes constituting the 


THE PERSONAL ELEMENT IN EVANGELISM 391 

bulk of the audience, do not know the music, and 
it spoils the service for them to have it converted 
into a singing school. So they sit in enforced 
silence, despite the leader’s enthusiastic and re¬ 
peated exhortation, “Now, let everybody sing!” 
How gladly would they comply, and what a volume 
of song would fill church or auditorium if they were 
only given a chance to use the old songs—lofty in 
sentiment and set to noble strains—with which they 
are familiar, and which are so endeared to them! 
It seems pathetically sad to us to deprive these 
mature Christians of the opportunity, for which they 
long, of expressing themselves in song. Surely 
there are enough of moving and stirring hymns in 
our old collection to suit any modern evangelistic 
service. 

The period after the revival is a somewhat severe 
testing place for the members of the church. La¬ 
mentable, indeed, would it be if, succumbing to any 
feeling of reaction, church members should, after 
all the zeal of an evangelistic campaign, be lax and 
let go what they have gained. Some members who 
have been cold and indifferent have been aroused 
and stimulated, and they must find their places regu¬ 
larly in all religious meetings, and take some part 
in them. Some found great blessing in calling from 
house to house, and this work ought not to be done 
simply once a year, or in a period of years. Some 
were helped by speaking to others concerning their 
religious condition and hopes, and this practice will 
be of quite as much importance thereafter. 

This period is a critical one for those converted. 
The converts in the meeting ought to show their 


392 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


earnestness and the sincerity of their vows by unit¬ 
ing immediately with the Church, and taking some 
part in the Christian work. The public profession 
of the vows of a Christian will increase their spirit¬ 
ual interest and confirm and strengthen all they 
have thus far done and experienced. In the Church 
they will find that society and fellowship by which 
they will be sustained and encouraged. There they 
will discover what have been rightly termed “the 
means of grace”—the public Sabbath services, the 
prayer meeting and class meeting. There they 
will find various societies organized for Christian 
work, and they can employ their activities in them. 
There they will find the Christian ordinances of 
baptism and the Lord’s Supper. 

The necessary next step after a confession of 
Christ is to unite with the Church of which he is 
the Head, and in which his Spirit abides; where his 
sacraments are and where the gospel is preached 
according to his ordaining. If one says he can live 
as good a Christian life outside as inside the Church, 
let him reflect that, if everyone had taken that posi¬ 
tion, no Church whatever would have been possible, 
and without the organization for the spread of 
truth, no Christianity to-day would be in existence. 
It is the one grand means for extending the knowl¬ 
edge of Christ and salvation, and anyone who truly 
loves Christ will love the Church he has instituted 
and set in the world to do his work and to publish 
his gospel. It is the duty of every Christian to 
help forward the evangelization of the world, and 
every good, philanthropic cause that goes hand in 
hand with the gospel. These agencies are found 
almost exclusively within the Christian Church, 


THE PERSONAL ELEMENT IN EVANGELISM 393 

and no one can find any better society, any better 
channels or method for his religious and benevo¬ 
lent impulses and activities, than there. 

If one stays outside the fold of which Christ is 
the Shepherd, and refuses to commit himself pub¬ 
licly in allegiance to his name, it will not be long 
before the world, which has not been definitely and 
absolutely forsaken, will absorb again his feeble 
spirituality and he will be as before his awakening. 
This is not written from theory. Every pastor knows 
that those who can be, with some assurance, counted 
as sincere Christians who will endure, are those 
who consecrate themselves at the altars of the 
Church. After a little while the others are not to 
be found, and the interest which once possessed 
them has completely died out. Every young con¬ 
vert should receive the friendly warning not to 
make the dangerous experiment of trying to live 
a Christian life outside of Christ’s Church, but to 
go forward and finish what he has begun—dedi¬ 
cate himself to Christ’s work in company with his 
followers, and continue faithfully in that helpful 
communion till called to membership in the Church 
Triumphant of the glorified. 

Owing to laxity in interest and method many 
churches fail to hold permanently the converts 
made in their revival services. A year or two after 
the great revival in Wales there was a reported 
decrease in the Welsh churches of ten thousand 
members. It may be that the statistics are a little 
unreliable, as most things of that sort are. It is 
doubtless true that increases and decreases are but 
words in arithmetic, and that Jesus Christ is never 
impoverished by the results of a census, and that 


394 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


the assets of his kingdom are no smaller because 
numbers have gone down. 

Nevertheless, the situation calls for some careful 
reflection. The Welsh revival was a wonderfully 
sweet and pure religious movement, largely among 
the laity, and without much effort on the part of 
the preachers. Men were carried away with high 
and holy emotions and reprobates yielded to hal¬ 
lowed impulses. But was there sufficient patient 
instruction given these converts? Did anybody tell 
them whither they were being carried? Was there 
enough insistence on the cost of the new life? No 
church would have been equal to retaining such a 
crowd, including children and rude and elemental 
men and women, with the thousands of entangle¬ 
ments presented without. The joy of the new con¬ 
verts was great, but the responsibility of the Church 
was greater still. The opportunity and testing of a 
church comes, not in the revival but after the re¬ 
vival. What the power of the Church really is, 
what gift of domination and conquest has been 
won by it, is shown when 4 ‘ the tumult and the shout¬ 
ing dies.” The question before all the churches is 
not whether they can get a revival, but what they are 
able to do with it when they have got it. God may 
reveal to churches, praying for an outpouring, their 
pathetic lack, since their desires are so much vaster 
than their vitality. There must be grip enough to 
hold what is won—to teach and inspire the crowd 
that comes in the heat of devotion. The Church 
itself must go to the penitent bench and live there 
before it can expect to see much fruit of others go¬ 
ing there. In Wales the conditions of life which 
surrounded the converts made it very difficult for 


THE PERSONAL ELEMENT IN EVANGELISM 


395 


many to endure. The public house pulled as never 
before because men had money in their pockets as 
they never before had. The debasing recreations 
and the temptations of the world and politics 
added their seductions. The new age certainly de¬ 
mands a new evangelism and the new evangelism 
involves a vast preparatory toil. 

Interest in men must be permanent and not spas¬ 
modic. We once heard of a young man, coming into 
one of our cities, who complained that a certain 
minister gave him no rest or peace until he had 
4 4 deposited his letter. ’ ’ He called on him repeatedly 
and showed him the greatest attention. But, after 
he had presented his letter and joined the local 
church, he suddenly 44 dropped him,” and seemed to 
lose all interest in him. We can well conceive how 
this might occur. The pastor might be absorbed, 
not, as some cynics might allege, in increasing his 
membership roll simply to spread his sounding name 
abroad; he might be, and most probably was, taken 
up with a pure desire to get people who had letters 
in their possession safe into the fold before they had 
got entangled in the allurements of city life and been 
drawn away from former allegiance. But once hav¬ 
ing accomplished this, he was out after fresh game. 
He took it for granted that he had done all he could, 
for a time, for the brother now 44 brought in,” and 
that he must expend his efforts in doing the same 
things for others, leaving the church members to 
make a warm social atmosphere for the new recruit. 

One can see how this might naturally and inno¬ 
cently occur with no intentional neglect in mind; 
the loss of interest is more apparent than real. The 
pastor is happy that the brother is now in the flock. 


396 


DYNAMIC CHRISTIANITY 


He has not forgotten him, but he thinks of the 
“one” more than of the “ninety and nine.” Never¬ 
theless, can we not see some real basis for the 
somewhat pardonable feeling of grievance on the 
part of our young man? The pastor ought to have 
shown more decidedly and continuously the concern 
and friendliness which he doubtless felt for him. 

Sometimes this happens in the case of converts, 
for whom the pastor has labored and prayed inces¬ 
santly ; after once they have been admitted to mem¬ 
bership his interest in them seems to die out and 
he acts as if that were the end of the matter. That 
is the wise and praiseworthy pastor who gathers the 
converts into classes for definite advice and prayer, 
who instructs them in their duties as Christians, 
who meets with them weekly, and gets to know them 
familiarly. It is not to be wondered at that, with 
such pastors, there is little or no falling away. And 
it may well be believed that such candidates make 
the most intelligent, faithful, and devout members 
of the Church. Is it a very surprising thing that 
so large a percentage of converts “drift” when they 
are allowed to go their own sweet way, with little 
pastoral oversight or care ? 

But it is time to bring our volume to a close. The 
author has endeavored to dwell upon matters essen¬ 
tially spiritual and inward, but also to be thoroughly 
practical and helpful. If he has stimulated and 
sustained hope for the reclamation of the most far- 
gone of sinful men and women; if, in any measure, 
he has succeeded in impressing the urgent necessity 
of a fuller and deeper work of grace in the Church 
as a body and in its members individually; if he 


THE PERSONAL ELEMENT IN EVANGELISM 397 

lias been able to suggest any plans and methods 
whereby more conversions may resnlt; if to minis¬ 
ters and laymen alike he has been instrumental in 
inspiring a stronger confidence in the operation of 
the Holy Spirit in human lives and institutions, and 
in stirring up holy enthusiasms, and habits of trust 
and prayer, he humbly feels his labors in the prepa¬ 
ration of these pages have not been in vain. 



INDEX 


A 

Abbott, Dr. Lyman, quoted, 138, 
293 

“Address to the Clergy” (Wesley), 
277 

Agnosticism, 29, 52 
Allen, Rev. Dr., to young Chris¬ 
tians, 156 

American Society of Religious 
Education, quoted, 176 
Anthony, Dr. C. V., quoted, 378 
Antichrist, the real, 188 
Arnold, Matthew, on conduct, 10; 

on Christ, 23 
“Arp Eskew,” 68 
“Ashamed of Jesus,” 160 
Associated Advertising Clubs of 
America, quoted, 367 
Australian Christian World, 
quoted, 359 

B 

Babcock, Maltbie, quoted, 197 
Backsliding, 186; renewals from, 
257, 258 
“Balance,” 36 
Ballantyne, Willie, 99 
Bandits, Chicago, declarations of, 
61, 62 

Banks, Dr. John Shaw, quoted, 
116 

Bates, Rev. George E., quoted, 
120 

Begbie, Harold, quoted, 81 
Bible, the, converting power of, 
112; supreme purpose of, 115; 
study of, 128, 130, 131, 293; 
use and misuse of, 132; sug¬ 
gested for college entrance ex¬ 
aminations, 133; ignorance of, 
134; its use in family worship, 
136, 137; its relation to revivals, 
304 

Bishop of London, cited, 199 
Bishop of Ripon (England), 
quoted, 121, 123 
Blavatsky, Madame, 14 
Boy preachers as evangelists, 
366 


Bowne, Dr. Borden P., quoted, 
291, 292 

Brooks, Phillips, popularity of, 
228 

Brotherhood, Presbyterian, state¬ 
ment of, 328, 329 
Browning, Robert, quoted, 27, 267 
Bullen, Frank T., quoted, 99 
Bunyan, intensity of, 157 
Bums, Robert, quoted, 137 
Business cares and religion, 185 
Business men, religion of, 200; 
duty of, 320, 321 

C 

Caludius, Matthew, on Christ, 23 
Calvin, cited, 191 
Calvinism, 30 

Campbell, Rev. R. J., quoted, 326 
Carlyle, on Christ, 22 
Central Mission, Manchester, Eng¬ 
land, 78 

Chadwick, Rev. John White, 
quoted, 65, 66 

Chain, endless, in evangelism, 349 
Chicago, women’s club in, 130; 
spirit of, 325 

Child-training in religion, 377 
Children, in the church, 379 
Chinese Revival, program of, 356 
“Choosing,” 45 
Christ, miracle of power in, 9 
Christian Guardian, on evangel¬ 
ism, 337, 341 

Christian Science on sin, 51 
Christianity, experimental test of, 
172, 180, 181 

Christians, nominal, 303; ethical 
type of, 319 

Clarke, Francis E., quoted, 379 
Clarke, Dr. W. N., quoted, 
292 

Coe, Professor, cited, 154, 155 
Collier, Rev. S. F., cited, 79, 248, 
249 

Congreve, Dr., quoted, 23 
“Conquest of Canaan,” 68 
Convert, the new pastor’s con¬ 
cern for, 396 


399 


400 


INDEX 


Conversions, unenduring, 265; 
sudden, 373 

Conwell, Dr. Russell, cited, 330 
Cook, Jack, boy preacher, 366 
Coxe, Bishop Arthur Cleveland, 
hymn of, 224 
Critic, “air-bell” of, 27 
Criticism, biblical and Christian 
experience, 116 

Cultural method in evangelism, 
380 

Curtis, Dr. H. M., cited, 380 
D 

Davenport, James, an abusive re¬ 
vivalist, 369 

Dawson, Dr. W. J., effect of 
preaching of, 181 
“Dead churches,” 323 
Decline, alleged in religion, 228, 
229 

Dedications and revivals, 387 
Deism, 29 

Doctor P. and converts, 265 
Doctrinal preaching for revivals, 
268, 284, 355, 356 
Duncan, Norman, cited, 76 

E 

Ecclesiasticism, a substitute for 
spirituality, 220 
Edwards, Jonathan, cited, 31 
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, quoted, 
37; cited, 51 

Emotionalism, 105; American Is¬ 
raelite on, 108, 109 
Evangelism, the new, 207; re¬ 
lation of culture to, 250, 372, 
373; ideals and methods in, 
333; commissions for, 342; sym¬ 
posium on, 343; among the 
comfortable class, 344, 345; 
the “still hunt” method of, 349; 
Dr. Mills’s way, 351; theologi¬ 
cal seminaries, chair for, 356; 
ethical note on, 364; personal 
element in, 369; method with 
children, 375; Christian unity 
in, 386 

Evangelistic work, new departure 
in, 284 

Evangelists, the approved, 269; 
faddists, 290; criticism of, 301, 
370; pastors as, 301; singing, 
390 


“Everyman,” quotation from, 62 
Ezekiel on individuality, 63 

F 

Faber, hymn of, 231 
Fact of religion, 171 
Faith, perplexities in, 285 
Farrar, Canon, on Jesus, 18 
Fatalism in sin, 57 
Federation of Churches of Christ 
in America, on Church Unity 
and Evangelism, 385 
Fisk Jubilee Singers, 43 
Fiske, John, quoted, 369 
Franklin, Benjamin, cited, 261 
“Free from the law,” meaning of, 
362 

G 

Gardner, “Awful,” 69 
Gladden, Dr. Washington, quoted, 
51; cited, 226, 293 
God, not indifferent, 231 
Gorky, Maxim, quoted, 58 
Gregg, Dr. David, cited, 209 
Grenfell, Dr. Wilfred, quoted, 91 
Gunsaulus, Dr. Frank, cited, 283 

H 

Hadley, Samuel H., his method 
of dealing with penitents, 16; 
cited, 73 

Hale, Edward Everett, cited, 67 
Hale, Edward Everett, Jr., cited, 
181 

Hardy, Thomas, cited, 59 
Hatcher, Dr. W. E., quoted, 96 
Heart, heresy of, 191 
Hebrew writer on ideal minister, 
283, 284 

Heider, quoted, 23 
Hell, persistence of, 63 
Higher criticism, in the pulpit, 
291-295 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, quoted, 
203 

Hughes, Hugh Price, cited, 30 
Humboldt, William von, quoted, 
163 

Hyde, William De Witt, quoted, 
302 

I 

Ibsen, cited, 222 
Idealism, lack of, 221 
Ideals and methods in evangel¬ 
ism, 333 


INDEX 


401 


“Imitation of Christ,” 153 
Individual effort in conversions, 
302 

Ingersoll, Robert, cited, 36, 119 
“In Memoriam,” 146 
Institutional religion, 382 
Instruction in Christianity, 353 
Inquisition in Spain, 191 
Intellect and emotion, 242 
Introspection, as regards spiritual 
condition, 202 

J 

James, Professor William, cited, 
81, 94, 139, 153 

Jasper, Rev. John, conversion of, 
96 

Jefferson, Thomas, cited, 261 
“Jem,” converted Norwegian, 100 
Jesus, eulogies of, 22; explaining 
or obeying, 178; veneration for, 
161 

Joel, Prophet, outpouring of 
spirit, 224 

K 

Keim, on Jesus, 23 
Kempis, Thomas a, cited, 153 
Kentucky revival, 86 
King Arthur and Knights, 147 
King, Henry C., quoted, 347 

L 

Laity and lay officials, benefit of 
revival to, 257; as workers in 
revival, 296, 306, 307, 317; 
latent efficiency in, 331; co¬ 
operation with pastor, 360, 361 
Layman’s study of Bible, 114 
Lay work, methods of, 310, 311 
Lenten season and special ser¬ 
vices, 236 

Life, complexity of, 233 
London, Jack, cited, 344 
Lowell, James Russell, quoted, 216 

M 

Maclean, Norman, cited, 179 
“Manifestation,” 46 
Manliness in religion, 198 
Martineau, James, on Christ, 23 
Masses, saving the, 298 
Materialism, 29 

McAuley, Jerry, conversion of, 
69ff. 


McKinney, Dr. A. H., quoted, 
378 

McLaren, Dr. Alexander, quoted, 
246 

Mechanism in religion, 217, 219, 
352 

Men and Religion Movement, 242 

Mills, Dr. Charles S., his methods 
in church work, 351 

Ministerial supply, the, 282, 283 

Ministerial talent, variety of, 274, 
338, 339 

Ministers, benefits of revival to, 
255, 256 

Miraculousness, 105 

Mission incident, in Cincinnati, 93 

Mivart, resistance of to Roman 
Catholic dogma, 239 

Moody, Dwight L., popularity of, 
228 

“Moral men” and conversion, 260, 
261; principles of the former, 
262 

Mysticism, 219 

Mystery of the power, the, 86 


N 

“Natural law,” discussed, 29, 30 
“New theology,” 34 
Nicsea, Council of, 191 
Nicoll, Dr., on Jesus, 25, 26 
Numbers, as goals in seeking con¬ 
verts, 383 

O 

Officiary, Church, appreciation of, 
311, 312; spirituality among, 
313, 315 

Orthodoxy, the real, 189 

P 

Pantheism, 29 

Passion, in preaching, 107, 108; 
for men, 233; for God, 336, 
337 

Pastors, as evangelists, 301; their 
interest in new converts, 395 
Peggotty, Captain, 28 
Pentecost, 9, 212, 218, 220 
Perfection, 176 
Period after revival, the, 392 
Periodicity in religion, 251 
Pessimism in religion unwar¬ 
ranted, 225 


402 


INDEX 


Phelps, Professor William Lyon, 
quoted, 133, 135 

Phillips, Stephens, quoted, 55, 
58 

Positive versus negative religion, 
158 

Potter, Bishop, quoted, 288 
Power, 9, 12, 14 
Power, mystery of, 86 
Power for life of service, 171 
Power in inner life, 138 
“Practical” religion, 214 
Prayer, as a working force, 209; 

in relation to revivals, 254, 299 
Prayer and Bible phraseology, 124 
Prayer Book, Confession of the, 
168 

“Praying members” and “paying 
members,” 320 

Preachers, their relation to re¬ 
vival, 267; sensational, 270; 
multiplied duties of, 271, 279; 
who “are not evangelists,” 272, 
337; variety of talent in, 274, 
338, 389; philosophical and lit¬ 
erary, 276, 339, 340; kind de¬ 
manded by pew, 281, 286 
Preaching, sensationalism in, 270; 

brevity in, 288, 289 
“Preaching” and religious per¬ 
sistency, 187 

Prime, Dr. S. Irenseus, on Jerry 
McAuley, 72 

Privilege, religion as a, 347 
Professionalism in preachers, 334 
Progress in religious life, 164 
Protestantism—is it a failure? 212, 
237, 238 

Psychology and conversion, 85- 
87, 105, 139, 140 
Pulpit, power dying? 282 
Puritans, religious fervor of, 157 


R 

Rainsford, Rev. Dr., cited, 382 

“Rationalism,” combating al¬ 
leged, 289 

Reade, Charles, cited, 102 

Reason and religion, 238, 239 

Religion, optimistic view of, 225, 
229, 327, 342 

Religion and secular life, 194; of 
the future, 27 

Religion and theology, 141-143, 
290 


Repentance, larger motive for, 348 
Revival, readiness for, 230; need 
of, 232, 253; hindrances to, 233- 
236, 321, 322; season of, 234; 
in church, 243; wide effects, 
243, 244, 259, 260, 321; press 
criticism of, 245; cure for in¬ 
dustrial wrongs, 245, 246; 

church members’ duty in, 247, 
248; law of periodicity, 251; 
historic, 252, 254; continuous 
prayer for, 254, 267; benefit to 
ministers, 255; “moral men,” 
260; “rootless” Christians in, 
262, 263, 264; thoughtful men, 
266; duty of preachers in, 267; 
doctrinal preaching in, 268, 269, 
284; duty of evangelists in, 
269; intellectualism in, 271; 
pastor evangelists, 272, 273, 
301; passion for souls in, 278; 
sensationalism in, 279, 365, 366; 
treatment of doubt in, 285; 
laymen in, 296, 306, 307, 322; 
individual effort, 302; “dead” 
churches, 303, 323; relation to 
Bible study, 304; expectancy 
in, 315; preparation, 358; ob¬ 
solete appeals, 363, 364; “get¬ 
ting up” a revival, 368; period 
after, 384; at church dedica¬ 
tions, 387; in halls and theaters, 
388 

Richmond, Ennis, quoted, 377 
Righteousness as a religious test, 
362 

Rishell, Dr., quoted, 376 
S 

Saint John, on love, 190 
Saint. Paul, divine discontent of, 
164, 166; an admirer of ath¬ 
letics, 193; his view of faith and 
works, 361 

Saintliness, what is it? 154 
“Saints,” Roman Catholic and 
Protestant, 152 

Sanctification and character, 173 
Satan, as cynic and heretic, 192, 
193 

Schelling, on Christ, 22 
Seamen’s Bethel, testimonies in, 
95 

Sermons, expository, 125-127 
Servetus, cited, 191 


INDEX 


403 


Sin, its reality and power, 36; 
consequences of, 37-40; con¬ 
sciousness of, 49; monotony of, 
153 

“Sin of David,” 58 
Sins, “venial,” 184 
Smith, Orlando J., cited, 36 
Smythe, Rev. Dr. Newman, cited, 
212 

Sociability in churches, 330 
Soul, the, election days of, 40 
Spencer, Herbert, cited, 28 
Spirit, baptism of the, 221 
Spirituality, urgent need of, 206, 
214, 215; Leslie’s Weekly on 
need of, 223 

“Still hunt” in evangelism, 349 
Sunday, “Billy,” the Rev.. 228 
Symposium on evangelism, 343 

T 

Tarkington, Booth, quoted, 68 
Tennyson, quoted, 146, 109 
Terry, Dr. M. S., cited, 95 
Theaters and evangelistic services, 
388 

Theological seminaries and evan¬ 
gelism, 356-367 
Theosophy, 14, 15 
Thoughtful men and revivals, 
266 

Transformations, 67, 105 
Tupper, cited, 261 
“Twice-born men,” 81-85 
Tyler, Professor John M., cited, 
178 


U 

“Ulysses,” quotation from, 170 
Unconverted, invitation to, 384 
Uniting with the church, 392, 393 
Unity, Christian, and evangelism, 
386 

Y 

Van Dyke, Dr. Henry, quoted, 33, 
35; at Yale, 198 

Vaughn, Cardinal, and Mivart, 239 
Vinton, Dr. Alexander, quoted, 
279, 280 

W 

Wales, revival in, 17; falling away 
of converts, 394 

Water Street Mission, 16, 73, 75, 
92, 344 

Watson, Dr. John (Ian Maclaren), 
quoted, 151, 294, 295 
Wesley, Charles (hymn), 158 
Wesley, John, “address to clergy, 
277; on dogmas, 290; on evan¬ 
gelistic naturalness, 333; on 
wrath to come, 364; on institu¬ 
tional religion, 382 
White, Dr. W. W., quoted, 132 
Whittier, John G., quoted, 306 
Wilde, Oscar, confession of, 39 
Will, appeal to, 208 
“Win One” Society, 350 


Z 

Zeal and wisdom in religious ac¬ 
tivity, 331, 332 



















































MAR 12 i912 


















































































